Last Updated on 2020-09-04 , 10:55 pm
Honestly – How many people don’t like meatballs?!
Lot’s of people, I’m sure!!
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But they probably wouldn’t be reading this article so it doesn’t really matter.
For the ones who are obviously at least marginally interested in a certain Swedish meatball, here’s some news that may or may not excite you.
“Plant balls”
A meatball made entirely of anything but meat cannot logically be called a meatball, so IKEA calls them plant balls, which is exactly what they are.
(Hm.)
But enough rubbish. Let’s move on to the meat of the article.
According to IKEA (pronounced Eee-KEH-Yah), plant balls are a plant-based meat substitute with no animal-based ingredients.
That makes it suitable for meatball lovers, flexitarians (a vegetarian who sometimes cheats), vegetarians and vegans.
I daresay that in the context of Asian countries, those who cannot eat beef for religious reasons may also find this a satisfactory option.
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Plant balls will be served as the usual meatballs are – with mashed potato and lingonberry jam.
IKEA has pointed out that while the balls themselves have no animal-based products, the dish as a whole will contain dairy products and is not suitable for a vegan diet.
What About the Veggie Ball?
If you remember, IKEA released the veggie ball a couple of years back. So what’s the difference between plant balls and veggie balls?
Well, according to IKEA, the plant ball was created with one main purpose – to recreate the meatball without meat, which means the plant ball is more in line with the Impossible foods or mock meat track.
The veggie ball, on the other hand, is its own thing. It is made with ingredients such as chickpeas, green peas, carrots, bell peppers, corn and kale, without containing any gluten, soy, nut, egg or lactose.
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So for health-conscious people. the veggie ball is probably the more authentic vegetable eating experience, while the plant balls are there to satisfy a craving in a guilt-free way.
Environmental Impacts
Made of ingredients like pea protein, oats, apples and potatoes, plant balls is claimed to have only 4% of the climate footprint of IKEA’s iconic meatballs which are made from ingredients like meat, onion, and egg.
Coming from an environmentally conscious company like IKEA, this move is not surprising as they frequently innovate their products to be more sustainable.
The Health & Sustainability Manager of IKEA food business said, “At IKEA we sell more than one billion meatballs every year. Imagine if we could get some of our many meatball lovers to choose the plant ball instead. If we were to convert about 20% of our meatball sales to plant balls that would mean around 8% reduction of our climate footprint for the food business at IKEA.”
Sounds impressive, but will it make you want to switch?
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I’ll let you decide on that for yourself.
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