Update: IKEA’s vegan meatballs are now available in the UK!

Starting today, IKEA shoppers can take a break from picking out their new flat-pack furniture and chow down on the international retailer’s famous Swedish meatballs – with a cruelty-free twist. After working with PETA US for three years and receiving numerous friendly petitions showing support for vegan options from IKEA fans around the world, the company are officially launching Grönsaksbullar – a delicious vegan meatball that’s available in select stores starting today and will soon roll out to its more than 350 stores.

With the demand for vegan options higher than ever, IKEA’s meat-free meatballs are right on trend, feeding diners’ hunger for food that’s healthy, humane and eco-friendly! Just be sure to order them without the gravy, which is currently not vegan at the UK shops.

Recent studies reveal that one person in eight living in the UK is vegetarian or vegan and that 20 per cent of Britons between the ages of 16 and 24 do not eat animals. As documented by PETA, vegan options spare animals from immense suffering, and vegan meals also have smaller carbon footprints, since the meat industry is a major producer of the greenhouse-gas emissions that cause climate change. Vegan options give diners’ health a break, too: vegans are less prone to suffer from heart disease, diabetes, strokes, obesity and cancer than meat-eaters are.

IKEA are just part of the trend that’s seeing compassionate options made available in restaurants, cafés and shops across the UK, including Nando’s, Wagamama, Pret A Manger and even Toby Carvery.

Grönsaksbullar will be available in UK stores from May. Have you spotted the vegan meatballs in your local IKEA? Let us know in the comments!