It’s no secret that the prize of any visit to IKEA is the food. Of course, there’s the furniture and the ball pit—if you can sneak in—and the dioramas that you can sit in and pantomime some sort of at-home scene (just me?). All that stuff is great. Even then, no visit to the global furniture behemoth is complete without stopping by the restaurant. Those Swedish meatballs, am I right?
For all the other food fans out there, it’s time to celebrate because IKEA, it seems, is expanding its menu. In honor of its 75th anniversary this year, the Swedish company announced a whole cadre of exciting new collaborations, projects, and goals for the year ahead.
In addition to the announcement that some iconic furniture from the company’s archives would be returning to their showrooms, the company also unveiled plans to be completely “planet positive” by 2030, a goal it'll achieve by cutting down on plastic during production and streamlining processes to be more environmentally sound. For a company of this global heft to put sustainability at the front of its agenda is a good thing.
But where, exactly, does food come into the equation? Oh, yes, I almost forgot. As part of the “planet positive” initiative, IKEA plans to amp up its plant-based food offerings. This means that those meatballs you love might soon be joined by a whole host of other, vegetarian and vegan-friendly options. And in some places, as soon as August 2018.
Earlier this year, IKEA unveiled a vegan hot dog, so this new rollout feels like a natural progression for the company.
And on top of all this good news, it seems that IKEA is introducing another sweet treat—this one just in time for summer (next summer, that is). Folks, get ready, because it seems a vegan soft serve could be on the horizon. Building on the popularity of its existing soft serve, the chain wants to make the creamy delicacy available to all sorts of eaters.
The IKEA Food Services AB Instagram account announced that the vegan soft serve could be served in bistros as early as summer 2019. And that’s definitely something I can get behind.
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