Man Claims This Popular Ikea Bowl Made His Food Catch on Fire

A man claims his grapes started smoking while in the popular serving bowl.

Blanda Blank bowl | Photo via Ikea

Ikea items are to my home what rumors about Beyoncé’s twins’ names are to the internet right now. In other words, they’re everywhere. So when I saw the headline “Ikea Admits That a Couple of Its Serving Bowls Might Catch Food on Fire” over on Grub Street this morning, I was 97 percent positive that the bowls in question were stuffed somewhere in my pantry. And yes, yes, they are.

Turns out, Ikea is investigating a claim that their Blanda Blank bowls — you know, those stainless steel mixing/serving bowls that everyone you know under the age of 30 owns, because they cost the same as a latte — may cause food to catch fire and is also subjecting them to new product-safety tests. This comes after a Swedish man’s claims that one of his stainless steel Blanda bowls set his food on fire. The story goes like this: The man was chowing down on some grapes outside when he smelled smoke. At first he thought it was his neighbors having a barbecue, but then he looked down and realized that the twigs on his grapes were smoking. The man then posted a video of the bowl smoking to Facebook, lest anyone think he was crazy.

https://www.facebook.com/richard.walter.792/videos/1476448169085045/

As Grub Street says, “The bowl’s concave shape and shiny stainless steel, it seems, can magnify the effect of sunlight by concentrating it like a laser on one spot inside the bowl. Once the heat builds up, whatever flammable thing is in the way can ignite, whether that’s a piece of paper or a tasty afternoon snack.”

So yeah, maybe keep your use of the stainless steel bowls from the Blanda series to indoor use (and away from windows, for good measure).

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