IKEA meatballs
The online vegan community has been buzzing with news of IKEA readying a vegan meatball for roll out (ahem) in their store cafeterias.
News of the furniture and home wares megastore considering a plant-based meatball broke in July 2014, so the following statement released by the company’s PR firm has been a while in the making.
Louise Bangee, IKEA UK Food Manager, said:
At IKEA we want to offer healthy food choices that are delicious, sustainable and affordable for the many people, based on our Swedish identity. We are currently developing our food range to provide options that meet the different preferences of our customers. One of the exciting new products is a Veggie ball which will be launched in our stores from April and onwards. The veggie ball does not have any animal content in the ingredients. We will share more information about our new veggie balls nearer the time of the launch.
It is curious to note the word vegan has not been used in the official statement. It would be a shame if the meatballs weren’t actually vegan due to a sauce or cooking method.
But I remain hopeful. A vegan meatball has never been so anticipated by so many people. Are you interested?
An Ikea employee in Sweden has used the word vegan – she stated “The balls are completely free from animal products, which means that vegans can eat them.”
So they should be completely fine 🙂 (I doubt I’ll try them though, hardly ever go to Ikea, and if I do, I tend to stay less than an hour…)
I’ve never been to IKEA, but we’re slated to get one here in STL this year, I think. My friends who have IKEA addictions also love the meatballs, so I’d love to try a vegan version! Thanks for keeping us up on stuff like this, btw!
I used to go to Ikea just for the meatballs sometimes, so knowing I can get my vegan fill will definitely see me making a trip out 🙂 Can’t wait. Let’s just hope they do a vegan version of the cream sauce they serve to go with it. Or I might cry.
If they lack imagination/skill/courage, they will end up using egg somewhere :/
The word “Vegan” is kind of taboo in Sweden because several years ago a number of vegan animal rights activists carried out “controversial” actions (freeing animals, damaging labs etc) which caused considerable uproar in the country and got a lot of bad press….I believe this is the reason why Ikea is not using the word “vegan” in their press releases, but I guess that their “meatballs” will be vegan because that way both vegans and vegetarians will be able to eat them (it makes sense, especially considering that Ikea’s range of foods is fairly limited).
Magna said “I guess that their “meatballs” will be vegan because that way both vegans and vegetarians will be able to eat them”
Flawless thinking but sadly not the way most companies approach their vegetarian lines so no reason to think Ikea will be any different!