Ikea has released a vegan-friendly version of its signature Swedish meatball made entirely of vegetables, as it seeks to appeal more to non-meat consuming shoppers.
The furniture retailer’s in-store restaurants turned over almost $1.5bn in 2014, accounting for more than 5% of overall sales. The standard meat-containing meatball was by far its most popular product, with 1bn of them being sold last year, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.
Its new vegan-friendly alternative boasts a carbon footprint that is roughly 30 times smaller than the original, with fewer calories and half the amount of fat. It will launch this month in select stores, before being rolled out across all 350 Ikea locations worldwide.
The move is in response to a growing trend towards vegetarian and vegan diets – one in eight UK adults does not consume meat, rising to one in five among the 16–24 demographic – and the Netherlands-based company has claimed that the new meatball’s introduction will appease vegan consumers, whose food options are limited by a prevalence of fish- and meat-based courses.
Ikea managing director of food services Michael La Cour said: “Ikea’s original vision was to create a better everyday life for the many. The same concept applies for food.”
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