Finnish food company forced to remove the word meat from their meatballs (they're just called balls now)

 
'Balls': Kesko has been forced to name their meatballs as just 'balls' (Picture: K-Menu)
Michael Howie12 March 2015

A Finnish food company has been forced to rename their meatballs simply “balls” as they do not contain enough ‘proper’ meat.

Food giant Kesko’s rebranding has been carried out because the product contains only machine recovered meat that has been mechanically separated from the bone, after the desired meat cuts have been removed.

The new packaging information describes the product as having “zero meat content”, even though it claims to contain both pork and chicken.

Spokeswoman Heta Rautpalo said: “The balls have the equivalent of 52 per cent meat. However, according to current legislation, they aren’t from parts of the animal that can be described as meat.

“It’s worthwhile to use those ingredients somehow and they are well-suited for use in these kinds of ground meat products.”

The use of mechanically separated meat was banned in the UK in 2012.

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