The 11 Unhealthiest Ikea Food Market Items Customers Should Avoid

To some, Ikea may just be an affordable furniture store, but connoisseurs of its delicious Swedish delicacies know that the big box retail chain is worth visiting for its food alone. While the crown jewel of its food selection may be the famously affordable Ikea food court, bolstering its culinary offerings is its Swedish Food Market — a makeshift convenience store stocked with various prepackaged Swedish food products.

Just like customers at a regular ole grocery store, plenty of Swedish Food Market patrons are surely looking to make healthier choices and avoid the food market's unhealthiest items. Determining which items qualify as unhealthiest meant looking at their nutritional content and identifying excessive amounts of sodium, sugar, fat, and carbs. Equally as important is how a product compares to similar offerings, given that healthy shopping can sometimes mean picking a nutritionally preferable product over an unhealthier alternative. So, with those criteria in mind, the following 11 items are the unhealthiest items in Ikea's Swedish Food Market, each of which is worth avoiding for health-conscious customers.

In the Ikea Swedish Food Market's beverage department there are a few different kinds of sparkling fruit drinks. The single unhealthiest beverage option is a sparkling apple and lingonberry drink called Dryck Bubbel Äpple & Lingon.

One serving of Dryck Bubbel Äpple & Lingon — which is 375 milliliters in quantity, comprising half of a full 750 milliliter bottle — contains a total of 39 grams of sugar. The next sugariest sparkling beverage is Apple Strawberry Lemon, with 36 grams of sugar, and Apple Elderflower follows with 31 grams of sugar. These are all pretty sugary drinks, but Äpple & Lingon is the one to avoid for anyone looking to moderate sugar intake. Complicating its nutritional content are 170 calories and 39 grams of carbs. Neither of those figures are exorbitant in a vacuum, but in a beverage those quantities can be considered excessive nevertheless. For its sugar, carbs, and largely empty calories, then, Dryck Bubbel Äpple & Lingon is one of the unhealthiest items at the Ikea Swedish Food Market.

Ikea's meatballs are famously delicious, so it's hardly surprising that there's multiple frozen meatball offerings at the Swedish Food Market. Customers with meat-free diets can even choose between two plant-based meatball options — one called Huvudroll Plant Balls meant to approximate the flavor of meat with plant-based ingredients, and another called Huvudroll Vegetable Balls with overtly veggie-forward ingredients. Those Huvudroll Vegetable Balls are not just the unhealthiest of all the meatballs, but among the unhealthiest items in the food market's freezer aisle.

While serving sizes vary from meatball product to meatball product, simple math reveals that the Huvudroll Vegetable Balls are the saltiest meatball option at 6.4 milligrams of sodium per gram of Huvudroll. For comparison's sake, 1 gram of pork-and-beef Huvudroll contains 5.9 milligrams of sodium, and 1 gram of Plant Balls contains 4.4 milligrams. With that said, the Huvudroll Vegetable Balls are also the lowest in calories of the three, such that an eight-meatball, 128-gram serving totals 230 calories and 820 milligrams of sodium. Meanwhile, a roughly equivalent 220-calorie serving of the Plant Balls consists of just five meatballs at 80 grams, and totals 350 milligrams of sodium. Such an excess of sodium in a total number of calories closer to a snack than a meal, then, means that the Huvudroll Vegetable Balls are a uniquely unhealthy frozen entree.

Bolstering the selection of plant-based entree options in the Ikea Swedish Food Market's freezer aisle are prepackaged Korvmoj Vegetable Hog Dogs. While the availability of a plant-based hot dog alternative over a traditional meat-based hot dog is a kind gesture for vegetarians and toward environmental sustainability alike, Ikea's veggie dog recipe is pretty notably unhealthy.

One serving of Korvmoj Vegetable Hot Dogs is 92 grams in volume and consists of two veggie dogs. Those two dogs contain a total of 660 milligrams of sodium and add up to just 130 calories. Of course, hot dogs are almost never consumed on their own, so factoring in ingredients like bread and ketchup will up the total sodium content of any hot dog meal. But that meager quantity of 130 calories means that those 660 milligrams of sodium come at a higher cost than usual, given just how little that one serving will satiate most appetites. Other items in the Swedish Food Market's freezer aisle, like mashed potatoes and potato pancakes, are still pretty salty, but each is ultimately under 450 milligrams of sodium, and a slightly higher calorie total. There are multiple frozen vegetarian alternatives, then, that are healthier than the Korvmoj Vegetable Hot Dogs.

Pickled herring is among some of the most iconic Swedish foods you should try before you die, and Ikea's Swedish Food Market offers a couple varieties of the dish. Unfortunately for health-minded connoisseurs of this particular delicacy, Ikea's jarred Sill Matjes Spiced Matjes Herring product is one of the unhealthiest items on the Swedish Food Market's shelves.

One serving of Sill Matjes equals ¼ of the 250-gram jar, and totals 110 calories — in other words, a reasonable amount of pickled herring to have as a snack. That said, that single snack contains a grand total of 1,220 milligrams of sodium. For what it's worth, that's paired with a solid 500 milligrams of potassium and a meager but non-negligible 5 grams of protein. Counterbalancing those numbers are 40 milligrams of cholesterol and 8 grams of sugar. But it's that titanic quantity of sodium, of course, that makes the Sill Matjes Spiced Matjes Herring a Swedish Food Market item best avoided by anyone concerned with excessive salt intake.

The shelves of Ikea's Swedish Market aren't just stocked with Swedish specialties but some American classics too — still with Swedish names, of course. One straight up American-style product at Ikea's food market is its snack-sized bag of Festligt Potato Chips with Sour Cream and Onion. Just like the American version, Ikea's take on the snacktime staple is pretty dang unhealthy.

Overall, one 50-gram serving of Festligt Potato Chips with Sour Cream and Onion adds up to 260 calories, 15 grams of fat, 1 gram of which is saturated fat, 300 milligrams of sodium, 28 grams of carbs, and 1 gram of sugar. Multiply each of those numbers by three for the quantities in a full 150-gram bag, which may well be the quantity most customers are consuming. For comparison's sake, those numbers aren't too far off from classic Lay's Sour Cream and Onion chips. One 50-gram serving of the Lay's product equals 270 calories, 17 grams of fat, 2 of which are saturated fat, 290 milligrams of sodium, 26 grams of carbs, and 1 gram of sugar. Anyone who avoids Lay's chips for dietary reasons, then, should also skip Ikea's Festligt Potato Chips with Sour Cream and Onion.

Key to any copycat Ikea meatball recipe is the sauce that flavors the furniture chain's signature meatball dish. While it's possible to make it from scratch, Ikea sells an at-home Allemansrätten Savoury Sauce Mix that can be used to whip up a quicker version of the cream sauce that famously sits atop every plate of Ikea meatballs. With that said, make it from scratch if healthfulness is a concern, because Ikea's sauce mix is super salty.

One-quarter of a full package, which counts as one serving of Allemansrätten Savoury Sauce Mix, equals 7 grams. Nutritionally, that serving totals 1 gram of fat, 20 milligrams of cholesterol, 250 milligrams of sodium, 4 grams of carbs, and 1 gram of sugar. Those numbers are lower than those of plenty of other food items, of course, but they're paired with a negligible 30 calories. Providing virtually no satiation, then, a mere 7 grams of sauce will most notably add 250 milligrams of sodium to whatever dish it's augmenting — probably something that already has a good deal of salt itself. So, enjoy meatballs at home without the Allemansrätten Savoury Sauce Mix to avoid excessive sodium.

Many of the items in the Ikea Swedish Food Market's pastries department are overtly Swedish, like multiple varieties of almond cakes or a Swedish pancake product called Pannkakor. In the frozen section is a package of six Cinnamon Buns, with the Swedish name Kafferep. Contrary to its industry-defining taste, Cinnabon didn't invent cinnamon rolls, nor was the product an American invention, even — rather, the treat originated in Europe and remains popular in Sweden. Even if they are technically Swedish, however, the Ikea Cinnamon Buns are closer to American junk food than some of the more mildly sweet Swedish desserts when it comes to their nutritional content.

One serving of Cinnamon Buns is 96 grams, which is presumably equivalent to a single bun. It nets 330 calories, 12 grams of fat, 5 of which are saturated fat, 51 grams of carbs, and 21 grams of sugar. None of these numbers are surprising, given that a cinnamon bun is inherently a big hunk of sugary bread. Nevertheless, significant quantities of largely empty calories, carbs, and sugar are not conducive to most health-focused diets.

The key to perfect copycat Ikea meatballs is in the sauce, including both a gravy-like cream sauce and a serving of lingonberry jam. The furniture chain's signature lingonberry jam is available at the Swedish Food Market, of course, but so too are a fair number of alternative jam or spread products. Customers looking to reduce sugar or carb intake should avoid the Sylt Blåbär Bilberry Spread in particular.

First off, bilberry is a synonym for huckleberry. While it's not a common food ingredient in the United States by any means, it's more recognizable by that latter name, at least. One tablespoon of Sylt Blåbär Bilberry Spread — consisting of just 15 milliliters out of 333 milliliters in total — equals 50 calories, 12 grams of carbs, and 11 grams of sugar. Those numbers aren't exorbitant in isolation, but just like with Ikea's Savoury Sauce Mix, all of those numbers will inherently be tacked onto whatever other food that serving of jam is accompanying. At only 50 calories, those are significant quantities of excess carbs and sugar that will only compound further if that single tablespoon of jam is exceeded.

Ikea's Swedish Food Market sells a relatively wide selection of chocolate bars, ranging from a bag of fun-sized, almond-filled chocolates to a package of carefully shaped pieces that can be assembled into what resembles a chocolate moose (the animal, not the dessert). One of the two least healthful chocolate bars in the Swedish Food Market is a straight up milk chocolate bar, called the Choklad Ljus.

The nutritional facts label on the Choklad Ljus counts half of the 100-gram bar as one serving, but given that chocolate bars are often eaten in full, multiplying each of those numbers by two arguably provides a more accurate reflection of the Choklad Ljus' nutritional content. One full bar, then, totals 520 calories, 28 grams of fat, 18 of which are saturated fat, 20 milligrams of cholesterol, 70 milligrams of sodium, 64 grams of carbs, and 60 grams of sugar. While a few of those numbers could single-handedly qualify the Choklad Ljus for a spot on this list, each gram of milk chocolate notably contains 0.6 grams of sugar, making it the single sugariest chocolate bar at Ikea. For that reason more than any other, the Choklad Ljus is one of the unhealthiest snack options at the Swedish Food Market.

Also among the selection of chocolate bars at the Ikea Swedish Food Market is a milk chocolate bar with toffee brittle and a milk chocolate bar with toffee pieces. Both are produced by the Finnish Karl Fazer brand, commonly shortened to Fazer. While the two bars are relatively similar nutritionally, the Fazer Milk Chocolate With Toffee Pieces is more unhealthful in a couple of key ways, earning it a spot among the Swedish Food Market's least healthy products.

Fazer counts one serving of its Milk Chocolate With Toffee Pieces as just 40 grams out of a total 145. That single serving consists of 220 calories, 12 grams of fat, 7 of which are saturated fat, 10 milligrams of cholesterol, 120 milligrams of sodium, 23 grams of carbs, and 21 grams of sugar. Multiplying those numbers by 3.625 to account for the whole chocolate bar returns 797.5 calories, 435 milligrams of sodium, 83.4 grams of carbs, and 76.1 grams of sugar. For what it's worth, one serving of the toffee brittle has just one fewer grams of sugar, but 70 fewer milligrams of sodium. It's safe to say, then, that there are multiple reasons nutritionally minded customers should avoid the Fazer Milk Chocolate With Toffee Pieces.

In some ways, the Ikea Swedish Food Market's fruitier dessert offerings can be considered less unhealthful indulgences than many of its chocolate bars — Choklad Mörk Dark Chocolate notably excluded. Still, customers looking for some of the least worst options should know that the Lördagsgodis Sweet Jellies with Wild Strawberry, Black Currant, or Raspberry and Blueberry Flavor is the fruity dessert product most worth avoiding at Ikea.

One 40-gram serving of this 100-gram bag of jellies consists of 140 calories, 25 milligrams of sodium, 35 grams of carbs, and 26 grams of sugar. The full bag, then, equals 350 calories, 62.5 milligrams of sodium, 87.5 grams of carbs, and 65 grams of sugar. Those numbers may be lower than either chocolate bar, but they also come at arguably more of a cost, given that a lower number of calories means they're less filling. All of the Lördagsgodis sweet jellies flavors are somewhat comparable nutritionally, but the Wild Strawberry, Black Currant, or Raspberry and Blueberry Flavor is the single worst offender. For just how easily it facilitates consuming excess sodium, carbs, and sugar without providing much satiation, this Lördagsgodis flavor stands out for its unhealthfulness.

To narrow down the most unhealthful products at Ikea's Swedish Food Market, I started by looking at nutritional information available online. Anything with higher-than-average quantities of sodium, sugar, fat, and/or carbs earned consideration. Then, rather than simply comparing those numbers to one another, I factored in both how a product is used and how it compares to similar products.

The latter aspect is particularly important because, whereas to one customer excess sodium could be of the utmost importance, another customer might not care about sodium but want to avoid excess sugar. So, the items on this list account for the unhealthiest standouts in each major category. Two chocolate bars ended up on this list simply because they're each unhealthy for distinct reasons — otherwise, there's only one jam, for example, because that's the jam customers averse to sugar and/or carbs should avoid more than any other. Based on those criteria, I determined that these 11 items are the unhealthiest products in Ikea's Swedish Food Market.