If you’re a shopper at IKEA, the Swedish meatballs in their cafeteria are as iconic as their cheap furniture. Indeed, they sell over a billion meatballs a year.
In a push to become more sustainable, the company has rolled out a vegan version of the meatball, calling them plant balls.
Created out of yellow pea protein, oats, potatoes, onions, and apples, the recipe tastes similar to their traditional pork and beef meatballs. Judging by the slew of pea protein foods we’ve seen lately, we can imagine they taste pretty good. And they have just 4% of the carbon footprint of their meat versions, which is a huge improvement.
And although food sales are just a small portion of the company’s offerings, it’s a positive and creative step to a greener future. Look for the vegan meatballs next month in Europe, and this fall in North America. Via FastCompany:
Making the snack from plants shrinks its carbon footprint to just 4% of the original meatball.
It’s one part of Ikea’s larger ambition to be “climate positive” by 2030, meaning that it will reduce more greenhouse gas emissions than it emits.
-FastCompany
