The truth about the meat called ‘balls’

By Georgi Gyton

- Last updated on GMT

Kesko said it had not set out to mislead anybody
Kesko said it had not set out to mislead anybody

Related tags Finland

Stories have been making the rounds in the national press this week regarding Finnish food giant Kesko reportedly changing the name of its meatballs, to just ‘balls’.

Finnish broadcasting company YLE published a story earlier this week, which claimed the company had renamed its meatballs, due to the fact they contained mechanically-recovered meat, which is not defined as ‘meat’ in Finnish law.

However, a spokesperson for Kesko told GlobalMeatNews​ that YLE’s story was misleading, as it suggested the product name had been changed. He explained that the new product, launched last month, had simply been listed incorrectly on its website.

According to the spokesperson, the official name of the product in English is "K-Menu Ball 300g",​ or in Finnish "K-Menu Pyörykkä 300g".​ However, it had been listed as "K-Menu Lihapyörykkä"​ (K-Menu Meatballs in English), which was picked up by YLE, and was subsequently changed by Kesko.

"We did not try to mislead anybody; the wrong headline was simply a mistake and we are sorry about that,"​ said the spokesperson. "All the labels on the actual product were correct."

Describing the Finnish law on these types of products, Heta Rautpalo, product research manager at Kesko, said: "Mechanically recovered meat cannot be described as meat. It’s mechanically separated from the bone after the parts that can be defined as meat have been removed from the carcase with a knife.

"These balls (sic) have the equivalent of 52% meat. However, according to current legislation, they aren’t those 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."

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