A collaboration between global retail furniture IKEA and Mowi has resulted in the expansion of IKEA’s sustainable cod and salmon balls.
IKEA began carrying fish balls, developed by Mowi and Dafgard – one of IKEA’s meatball suppliers – in cafes in many of its stores in 2018. Soon, they will be offered in a take-home package at IKEA stores in Sweden.
“We tested the salmon and cod balls in IKEA Restaurants in Portugal during Spring 2018 and got fantastic feedback,” said Sabrina Anania-Stepanian, product developer for IKEA Food Services AB, in Mowi’s 2018 Annual Report. More than 80 percent of IKEA’s restaurant customers who tried the balls liked them and nearly 90 percent appreciated fish balls as a more sustainable option, she added.
After the Portugal test, IKEA rolled out the fish balls in its United States stores late last year. At the time, IKEA said its “carefully selected” suppliers provide ASC-certified salmon “from the icy fjords of northern Norway” for the fish balls.
“Sustainability is as important to them as it is to us. We want to provide our customers healthier and responsibly-sourced food,” the retailer said.
“We are proud to have worked together with IKEA for their development of the salmon and cod balls, which is now rolled out globally,” said Michal Sturtz, new products development director for Mowi.
Mowi is currently looking for other similar development partnerships.
“During the development process of the salmon and cod ball, we have become much closer in our partnership, and it opens up future collaboration to find new ways of selling sustainable seafood to customers all around the globe,” said Marcus Axelsson, account director for Mowi.
The main ingredients of the meatballs are salmon and cod cut-offs. During their development, IKEA “saw a lot of potential in the smaller pieces of fish- the ones that cannot be used as fillets,” Anania-Stepanian said. “But these are just as good and delicious.”
Moreover, the fish balls are approximately seven times lower in CO2 emissions than traditional meatballs, Mowi said.
