Veggie balls and froyo are coming to an Ikea store near you

ALMHULT — At the Ikea’s Democratic Design Day celebrations in Almhult, Sweden, earlier this week, the brand gave a sneak preview of its upcoming plans and projects for the next few years. Interestingly, the emphasis wasn’t on a new range of shelves, instead, Ikea, emphasised: “It starts with the food.”

That is the slogan for Ikea’s theme for next year, which will see the furniture giant emphasising its food department with various initiatives and applying more sustainable methods in the productions of its offerings.

“Food is our secondary business and Ikea’s food section has gotten so big without us thinking about it,” said Jesper Brodin, managing director of Ikea, Sweden. “People around the world are interested in Scandinavian food culture — like in Singapore, people love the meatballs and salmon.”

Meatballs and salmon might have to take a backseat though: At the event, Ikea premiered its latest food sensations, such as vegatable balls (there’s a chicken meatball too) alongside new snacks such as vegetable root chips and brown bean crisps; as well as frozen yoghurt machines that customers can use to make their own froyo treat.

You could say that Ikea is getting onboard the healthy eating movement, although managing director of Ikea Food Michael La Cour prefers to see it as a new reality rather than a food trend. “It’s not about cashing in on a trend — I believe there is this big interest in food all over the world, spurred on by technology. That motivates people to be engaged to know more about food and we have this huge privilege of having 600 million customers come eat with us. Our job is to serve them the best way possible.”

La Cour added that it’s very much a sign of the times that customers are requesting for more choices, especially healthier and more sustainable food options. “We see a huge change (from customers) and huge changes tend to drive innovation. Ikea is about innovation so this is a time to launch and try out new things such as our veggie balls.”

He said Ikea is also in the process of exploring some New Nordic diet ideas for Ikea food and he assured that there would be a “Singaporean accent” to the menu offered in Singapore. The food items, such as the vegetable balls and chicken meatballs, will be available in Singapore before the end of the year, said an Ikea Singapore spokesperson. As for the frozen yoghurt, it will be available “for sure” but no date has been set.

Meanwhile, amidst the proceedings of Democratic Design Day, Ikea’s strategic communications advisor of external relations, Johanna Parikka Altenstedt, addressed the issue of Ikea having to recall its Patrull Klamma and Patrull Smidig safety gate on Tuesday. “If there’s any reason or risk children can get hurt by using our products, we take the products back,” she said.

She explained that recalls may have nothing to do with the quality of the product and cited the example of the GungGung children’s swing which was recalled last year, even though it has been tested and found to be perfectly safe for kids up to eight-years-old. “But what we didn’t think of — but should have — was that those children playing with GungGung might have big sisters and brothers who are older than eight years old (who are) much heavier and (would be) hanging on the GungGung too, which was why the swings started falling.”

Altenstedt stressed that Ikea cares more about the customer’s perceptions of safety and quality rather than legal requirements when it undertakes a recall. Ikea receives 5,000 to 7,000 safety alarms from customers for its products; and recalls are done “mostly a few times” a year, Altenstedt said. SERENE LIM