Eco-friendly products and vegan food as a way to fight global warming

The climate footprint of Ecodels is only 4% of that of classic IKEA meatballs.

Ekodelki appeared in Russian IKEA stores in August 2020, but rather quickly won the audience award in the voting of the “We Eat Better” project for the best vegetable alternatives of the past year.

Elena Shashlova, Acting Head of the Food Department at IKEA, answered the questions of Alexey Ivanov, Head of the Eat Better project, about the reasons for the increase in plant-based alternatives to meat in the menu of stores and their future plans. 

- What do you think: the main reason for the rapid success of eco-delicas is the great brand awareness, very believable meat taste, price, or all of these together?

 - The main success factors are the popularity of IKEA meatballs. Ekodelki is a high quality product with excellent taste characteristics and at an affordable price. Meatball lovers can contribute to reducing their climate footprint without changing their eating habits.

- How long did it take to develop eco-models? 

 - The journey from an idea to a guest's plate usually takes about two years.

- Last spring, IKEA revealed the recipe for their meatballs. Does the company also plan to reveal the recipe for eco-delics?  

 - IKEA showed one of the ways to cook meatballs at home, but the real recipe remains unique. Creating ecodeleks is a more complex process, which includes obtaining vegetable protein from peas. The main components are: pea protein, oatmeal, potato and apple, plus various natural additives with umami flavor, which allow you to achieve the desired taste, shape and consistency. In the future, a novelty will appear in our stores - minced meat from vegetable protein, from which it will be possible to easily prepare eco-friendly delicacies at home.

- Do you plan to make a completely vegan version of ecodelek serving? 

 - Such options are available on request in stores. Customers who prefer vegan dishes can ask the staff which side dishes are suitable for this type of food, and, for example, take broccoli as a side dish instead of mashed potatoes as a side dish. The idea of ​​ecodeleks is to make an analogue for meat lovers, not just for vegans.

- In November 2020, IKEA announced its intention to make 50% of its restaurant meals and 80% of its packaged meals plant-based by 2025. Will this happen in all countries at the same time, or in Russia, this process may take longer? And what percentage of plant-based dishes are in IKEA restaurants now?

 - At the moment in Russia, about 25% of vegetable dishes in restaurants, bistros and shops "Swedish Products". Our ambition is to meet the global targets by 2025.

- Ecodeleks have the same price as meatballs. Can you tell how much more meat is ordered? And are there any plans to make the price of ecodeleks lower than meatballs?

 - At the moment, the share of ecodelek in restaurants reaches 10% of the number of meatballs sold in some stores. In the store Swedish products, the share of sales in pieces from sales of meatballs is on average 20%, in some regions up to 30%.

“IKEA stores sell 1 billion meatballs every year. Just imagine what will happen if at least some of them can be replaced with vegetable meatballs. This will help to significantly reduce the company's climate footprint.” Sharla Halvorson, Head of Health and Sustainability at IKEA Food.

- There are quite a lot of fish dishes in IKEA restaurants. Do you have any plans to make fish-flavored plant-based alternatives as well? For example, in the US and Europe, this direction has become increasingly popular in recent years.

 - So far, there are no such plans in the near future.

- In Russia, at the moment, few large companies talk about the importance of reducing meat consumption and launch appropriate initiatives. Most often these are international companies. Do you think this is because Europe already has a much more developed commitment to sustainability and reducing its carbon footprint? In your opinion, will Russian companies begin to place more emphasis on sustainable development in the coming years and will this become part of their CSR?

 - In any process there is always someone who started it. This is fine. We are proud to be one of the first brands to offer a plant-based alternative to meat at an affordable price. But here it is important to understand that we did this not because we wanted to become a pioneer, but because our customers expected such a step from us, as evidenced by the sales of eco-deliveries now. More and more people are choosing a plant-based diet due to climate change reasons, and we are confident that the demand for such foods will continue to grow.

- What are the main advantages of increasing plant-based dishes in restaurants that you could name colleagues from other companies?

 “By expanding our portfolio to include delicious, affordable plant-based foods, we are helping more people choose food that is even more caring for people and the planet. With a climate footprint of just 4% of that of classic IKEA meatballs, Ecodelicas are another step towards making IKEA a positive climate change by 2030.