Finland forced to sell meatballs as plain 'balls' in row over meat content
Finland has been forced to rename one of its favourite foods, after a fracas about its meatballs.
It was found the meatballs in supermarkets were made from mechanically recovered meat, which did not count as it was only 52% actual meat.
So now they are described as just 'balls' on the labels to meet EU labelling laws.
The balls contain meat mechanically recovered from the bone after the main sections of meat have been removed. Methods include mechaicllay scraping the bone, or blasting it with high-pressure water hoses to remove the meat.
Some of Finland's balls include meat content that's defined as zero, even though they claim to contain pork and chicken.
