50% of IKEA restaurants will be plant-based by 2025

Image: IKEA

Mohsina Dodhiya24th November 202024th November 2020Food, News

“IKEA is taking a full value chain approach to contributing to sustainable food systems.”

Swedish furniture giant IKEA has announced a new set of food commitments in an effort to make “healthy and sustainable food more affordable and desirable to the many people.”

In a pre-event for the UN Food Systems Summit 2021, the company pledged to make 50% of its restaurant meals plant-based by 2025. It added that 80% of its meals will also be free of red meat by then.

IKEA also intends to make 80% of its packaged meals plant-based in the next five years.

‘Making a positive difference’

Lena Pripp-Kovac, Chief Sustainability Officer at Inter IKEA Group, said: “IKEA wants to make healthy and sustainable choices the most desirable option, by for example demonstrating that plant-based food can be really delicious.

“Research confirms the importance of making sustainable products affordable and desirable, and IKEA can really make a positive difference here. The more sustainable choice shouldn’t be a luxury for the few. It should be part of people’s everyday life.”

New climate friendly vegan meatballs

The multinational furniture company has already taken steps towards realizing its sustainability commitments. In August, it launched the plant-based version of its iconic meatballs in the UK amid much fanfare.

It already offered a vegan-friendly, plant-based meatball made with chickpeas, green peas, and carrots.

However, the new plant balls developed to look and taste more like its traditional meatballs, are said to have just 4 % of the climate footprint of its meat counterpart.

They are made from pea protein, oats, apples, and potatoes.

Responsible and sustainable food system

“A truly sustainable food system must be based on delicious, nutritious, and responsibly produced food,” Managing Director for IKEA of Sweden and Manager IKEA Range & Supply, Peter van der Poel, said.

“IKEA is taking a full value chain approach to contributing to sustainable food systems, from responsible sourcing of materials, reducing food waste along the value chain, circular and more sustainable packaging, and using the IKEA reach to make healthy and sustainable food options available to as many people as possible.”

Retail expansion

Since its launch, the company has rolled out the plant ball to US, Australia, Singapore, and Dubai to get more consumers to choose plant-based options and stay on track to its goals of becoming climate positive by 2030.

Sharla Halvorson, Health and Sustainability Manager for the global IKEA food business, said in a statement: “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 percent of our meatball sales to plant balls that would mean around eight percent reduction of our climate footprint for the food business at IKEA.”