French survey: beef sausages made of pork
A French survey has alarmed the community barbecue lovers and consumers of halal meat: more than one in two ‘merguez’ contain pork, the French newspaper Le Monde has revealed.
According to the Code of Practice, charcuterie, ‘merguez’, or ‘real merguez’, is composed exclusively of beef and mutton. In practice, there is some tolerance for merguez containing pork, but the words ‘merguez porc’ must always be present.
Otherwise, “insofar as a merguez sausage is called, it must not contain pork,” says the of the Directorate General for Competition, Consumption and Repression of Fraud (DGCCRF).
Survey
But a survey in 52 departments, conducted in 2007, showed that 53% of samples analysed in 206 towns contained pork.
Pork is cheaper than other meats, so widespread fraud can drastically reduce costs of production, but is a “deception on essential qualities of the product,” especially for consumers of halal meat.
The survey results of 2006 were even more alarming: 71.4% of samples analysed contained then the pork.
Related website:
• Le Monde (in French)
Subscribe here to the Pig Progress newsletter
Join 18,000+ subscribers
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated about all the need-to-know content in the pigsector, three times a week.
