caption Ikeas new vegan meatballs. source Courtesy of Ikea

Ikeas is rolling out a vegan version of its iconic Swedish meatball dish that is served in its restaurants in stores around the world.

The company, which is best known for its inexpensive furniture, confirmed last week that the plant-based meatball dish will hit stores in August of this year.

The news that it was testing this vegan alternative was first announced in May 2019.

Its Swedish meatballs, which are typically served with cream sauce, mashed potatoes, and lingonberry jam, have been offered in its stores for more than 35 years and have become an iconic part of the company. According to Mashed story from 2017, two million meatballs are eaten every day across its stores worldwide.

Ikea already offers alternatives to its original beef-pork blend meatballs. These include veggie balls, chicken balls, and salmon and cod balls, which were launched in 2018.

It is a really exciting industry! Looking at the quality of the products that we have been tasting I am looking forward to serve a delicious plant based meatball made from alternative protein at IKEA, Michael La Cour, managing director of IKEA Food Services AB said in a statement to the press in May. I hope that the many meatball lovers out there will like it as well.

Ikeas move to launch plant-based meatballs is part of the companys broader plan to become more sustainable.

On Thursday, Ikea updated investors on its progress toward becoming more climate positive. The company said that during the 2019 financial year the climate footprint of the chain had decreased for the first time by 4.3% in absolute terms. This decrease was driven by its increased use of renewable energy resources to produce Ikea products as well as increases in the energy efficiency of the lighting and appliances range, it said.

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Ikea is launching a vegan version of its widely popular Swedish meatball dish in August - Business Insider