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IKEA Meatballs | Chewsday Review

IKEA’s meatballs are a well-loved favourite in their restaurants, but do they meat the mark or is there more assembly required? Let’s roll into it!

Ingredients

Positives

There is a small amount of added sugar in these meatballs, but at just 1g per 100g, it meets our target.
It’s good to see premade meatballs contain 70% beef and pork, although supermarket-branded meatballs contain up to 84% beef and pork.
As there is no preparation involved, they offer convenience and can be ready in 15-20 minutes. This could come in handy for busy weeknight dinners!
$16/kg might seem like a lot for this bag of meatballs, but when compared to Coles pork & beef meatballs ($14.29/kg) and Woolworths pork & veal meatballs ($20/kg), it’s on par with other products of its kind. When you compare the cost to buy all the ingredients and make them at home, the IKEA meatballs come out cheaper. Not to mention all of that time saved rolling meatballs!

Negatives

The total fat for these meatballs comes in over our target, at 15.7g per 100g. This is similar to Coles premade meatballs (18.5g per 100g) and Coles beef & pork mince mix (17g per 100g). Using the leaner varieties of beef and pork mince to make meatballs at home, it could bring the total fat down to equal our guidelines, at 10g per 100g.
At 6.6g per 100g, the saturated fat in the IKEA meatballs is above our target. Again, making meatballs at home with the leaner beef and pork mince could lower the saturated fat by almost half.
The sodium in these are just above our target, at 432mg per 100g. When compared to other premade supermarket meatballs (427mg per 100g), this is very similar. Making meatballs at home would allow you to decide how much salt you want to add.

Marketing

Alternatives

Overall, the total fat, saturated fat, and sodium are all higher than our guidelines. We recommend giving some homemade meatballs a go if you have the time. Rolling the meatballs can be a great way to involve the older kids in the cooking process (and get the production line moving faster!) and it will allow you to decide what’s added to the meatballs to suit your family’s taste and texture preferences.
If you’re after a Scandinavian meatball fix, Family Mealtimes members can try our Danish-Style Meatballs or Kylie’s Finnish Meatballs, or you could try our Spaghetti and Meatballs with veggies and cheese!