Food Dictionary
Finding your way through shelf after shelf of food products that do not look the same as they do at home, and that have names in a foreign language can be a challenge. We have compiled a small dictionary for your first few visits to the supermarket.
Going to the Supermarket
Some useful information before you go to a Swedish supermarket for the first time.
Our smallest coin is the 1 krona/SEK. Prices are always rounded up to the nearest 1 krona.
Plastic and paper bags are to be found by the checkout and they cost extra. Small and thin plastic bags at the end of the checkout are free of charge.
Unless you have applied for a "self scan" service at one of the large supermarkets, the fruit and vegetables are weighed by the cashier.
"Extrapris" means that the price has been temporarily reduced.
"Kort datum" means that the product's expiration date has almost been reached. Sometimes stores sell such products at reduced prices.
"Bäst Före" means best before, and indicates that the date printed on the product is the recommended date for the product's consumption.
"Ekologiskt" means that the product has been grown/produced without artificial pesticides, hormones and so on. "Bra miljöval" means that the product has been certified as having a low impact on the environment (for its product category). The products are marked with a green and white logo with a stylised swan.
Dietry Preferences
Asian store
A store for Asian food products can be found on Pedagoggränd 5A in Ålidhem.
Middle Eastern produce
Kryddhyllan at the Ålidhem Centrum has an assortment of Middle Eastern food products.
Halal meat
Halal meat can be found in the freezers of the larger supermarkets (ICA Maxi, Coop Forum and Willy's). If you cannot find it, ask at the information counter in the entrance.
Vegetarian
The large to middle-sized supermarkets all have a pretty good stock of produce for vegetarian cooking. For instance, Willy's supermarket in Ersboda stocks large sacks of beans and peas.
Lactose intolerance
Look for products marked "Laktosfri". There is quite a good assortment for lactose intolerant people in most large to medium sized supermarkets.
Bread and Baked Goods
Many larger supermarkets sell bread and baked goods that are baked in the store. These goods are sold "un-packaged" and are usually marketed as "Hembakat" or "Butiksbakat". All packaged bread has to be labeled with the date it was baked (Bakdag/Bakat den) and the last day of consumption (Bäst före). Here are some other terms that may be helpful to know:
Types of flour
- Graham/Wholemeal flour - Grahamsmjöl
- Oats - Havregryn
- Rye - Råg
- Wheat flour/White flour - Vetemjöl
Types of sweetener
- Brown sugar - Farinsocker
- Icing sugar/Powdered sugar - Florsocker
- Golden Syrup - Ljus sirap
- Granulated white sugar - Strösocker
- Molasses - Mörk Sirap/Baksirap
- Sugar cubes - Bitsocker
Miscellaneous
- Almond - Mandel
- Baking powder - Bakpulver
- Dry yeast - Torrjäst
- Fresh/Live yeast - Kronjäst (red text for sweat bread)
- Hazelnuts - Hasselnötter
- Peanuts - Jordnötter
- Vanilla custard - Vaniljsås/Marsansås
- Walnut - Valnöt
Types of baked goods
- French loaf/White bread - Franska
- Whole grain - Fullkorn
- Cookies (Sweet) - Kakor
- Crackers - Kex
- Crisp bread, traditional for Sweden - Knäckebröd
- Rusks - Skorpor
- Thin flat unleavened bread (soft/hard), traditional for northern Sweden - Tunnbröd (mjukt/hårt)
- Wort flavoured rye bread - Vörtlimpa
Dairy
Butter (Smör)
Butter for spreading on bread is sold in boxes with a lid and comes with different percentages of fat. The levels are often graded with medium (mellan) and light/low (lätt) . Full fat (80%) is the standard. The percentages should be clearly visible on the box. Paper-wrapped pieces of butter marked "Smör" are so-called "real butter". This has not been processed for use on sandwiches and is therefore quite hard. It is usually used for baking. Paper-wrapped (usually larger) pieces called "Margarin" are only meant for cooking and baking.
Cheese (Ost)
There are many different types of cheese. They differ in flavour, fat content and style. "Hushållsost" and "Edamer" are mild cheeses, "Herrgårdsost" and "Prästost" are usually medium and "Grevé", "Ementaler", Cheddar and "Västerbottensost" are the stronger kinds. Each type of cheese has also its milder and stronger versions. "Lagrad" often means that it has a little more flavour, "Vällagrad" or "Extralagrad" means that it is very flavourful. The normal (and cheaper) way of buying cheese is in one piece rather than in slices. There is a utensil called a "Osthyvel" (cheese slicer or cheese planer) that is used to slice the cheese at home. Cottage Cheese is called Keso and can be found in the milk and butter counter. A Swedish speciality called Messmör is a sweet soft spreadable goat cheese.
Milk (Mjölk)
The different types of milk are "Lätt mjölk" (light/low fat) that comes in a yellow carton, "Mellanmjölk" (medium fat content) that comes in a red carton and "Mjölk" (the highest fat content) that comes in a green carton. Take care not to confuse the cartons with the similarly coloured cartons of "Filmjölk," as they are usually placed next to each other in the store. These contain an unsweetened yogurt style product that is commonly eaten with your breakfast cereal.
Sour Cream
There are two sour cream style products. They are called Crème fraiche and Gräddfil. Crème fraiche has different fat contents and with additional flavourings. Gräddfil is not as thick and is often used for dressings or dips.
Yogurt
Conveniently, yogurt has the same name in Swedish as in English. There is a wide assortment of yogurt products of all sorts of flavours with different fat and sugar contents. There are also buckets and containers of cooking yogurt (matlagningsyogurt), Turkish yogurt (Turkisk yogurt) and Greek yogurt (Grekisk yogurt) that are meant for use in cooking, not to eat for breakfast.
Dry and Canned Products
Most dry products are easy enough to identify. Rice is "Ris", Spaghetti is "Spagetti" and so on. However, here are a couple of words that may help you:
- Fullkorn - whole grain
- Glutenfri - free of gluten
- Ekologiskt - produced without artificial pesticides or enhancers.
Canned products are generally easily identified by the picture on the can, but here are the names of a few products that may psoe a few problems for you:
- Fiskbullar - fish balls, which are like meatballs but made from fish and usually canned in different types of sauce.
- Svamp - canned mushrooms of many different kinds are available in most supermarkets. The most common types are Champinjoner (champignons), Kantareller (chanterelles), Karljohanssvamp (cep) and Skogssvamp (mixed forest mushrooms)
- Matjesill - anchovy-type pickled herring. Pickled herring in other flavours are available in glass jars.
Fish and Seafood
- Flundra - flounder
- Lax - salmon (can be sold fresh, frozen, smoke-cured/rökt or raw spiced/gravad)
- Röding - charr
- Sej - coalfish
- Sill - herring (when sold in glass jars the herring is pickled and comes in different flavours and sauces)
- Strömming - baltic herring
- Torsk - cod
- Kräftor - crayfish
- Musslor - mussels/clams
- Räkor - shrimp or prawn (Ishavsräkor - shrimp from the Arctic Ocean)
Fruit and Vegetables
Many fruits have similar names in Swedish and English. For example, Lime is "Lime", Apple is "Äpple" and Apricot is "Aprikos". Therefore, we will limit the list below to those fruits and vegetables that might be somewhat more difficult to figure out when found on jars of marmalade (marmelad), jelly (gelé) or jam (sylt) or in cordials/fruit drinks (saft) and desert.
- Apelsin - orange
- Blåbär - blueberry
- Citron - lemon
- Fläder - elder (berry or leaf - cordial is often made from the leaf of the elder bush)
- Hallon - raspberry
- Hjortron - cloudberry (a northern speciality)
- Jordgubbe - strawberry
- Lingon - lingonberry/red Whortleberry (not very sweet, often served with game meat)
The vegetables you might find in frozen vegetable mixes or the likes and that may be hard to identify, or that may not be evident in the vegetable counter are:
- Kålrot - swede
- Lök - onion (available in different varieties and colours)
- Majs - corn/maize
- Morot - carrot
- Palsternacka - parsnip
- Pepparrot - horseradish
- Purjolök - leek
- Rotselleri - celeriac
- Syltlök - pickled onion
- Vitkål - cabbage
- Vitlök - garlic
- Ärtor - peas
Meat
Types of Meat
- Fläsk - pork
- Hjort - venison
- Kalkon - turkey
- Kalv - veal
- Kyckling - chicken
- Nöt - beef
- Ren - reindeer
- Vilt - assorted game
- Älg - moose
Meat Products
- Blandfärs - minced pork and beef
- Blodpudding - blood pudding/black pudding (made from pigs blood)
- Falukorv - a type of pork sausage
- Isterband - spiced sausage-like product made from the fattier pieces of pork (Ister=fat)
- Kassler - boneless smoked pork chops
- Korv - sausage (sausages usually contain pork, unless specified otherwise)
- Köttfärs/Nötfärs - minced beef
Spices
Many spices have names so similar to English that there is no need to translate them, but here are a few that might cause trouble:
- Dragon - tarragon
- Grillkrydda - BBQ Spice
- Ingefära - ginger
- Kanel - cinnamon
- Koriander - cilantro
- Kummin - caraway
- Muskotnöt - nutmeg
- Timjan - thyme
On the Sandwich
- Hamburgerkött - sandwich meat made from horse
- Kaviar - caviar paste made with fish eggs
- Leverpastej - liver pâté (a less fancy Swedish version of the French specialty, made from pig's liver)
- Medvurst - pressed sandwich meat from pork
- Mjukost - Cheese spread that comes with a wide variety of flavourings
- Skinka (Rökt/Kokt) - ham (smoked/boiled)
