Microwave currywurst contains harmful substances.
They can even be carcinogenic.
Mainz - who doesn't know it.
When it comes to food, it often has to be done quickly.
One possibility would be to use ready-made products such as microwave currywurst.
“ZDF wiso”, together with Sebastian Lege, reveals what is really in this currywurst.
In doing so, they show how dangerous the product can really be for health.
According to "ZDF", about 85 percent pure muscle meat is used for the microwave currywurst, which is enough for "top quality".
The rest is then stretched with cheap bacon.
There are two advantages to using bacon.
For one thing, it enhances the taste and is cheap to produce.
In order to get a sausage from the meat, it has to be cut.
Microwave currywurst contains the dangerous substance nitrite.
When cutting, meat and fatty tissue are chopped up and mixed with spices and other ingredients.
A lot of salt and artificial phosphates are added to make the sausage meat evenly soft.
These two substances also help to bind water and also increase the shelf life of the currywurst.
Nitrite curing salt is also used.
It is a mixture of table salt and sodium nitrite.
The nitrite curing salt prevents the growth of bacteria and thus has a preservative effect.
Another positive side effect: the mixture reddened the sausage.
Because heat actually turns the meat pale.
The nitrite, however, ensures a stable red color.
But this is a dangerous substance.
Nitrite can even be carcinogenic.
Nitrite alone is so poisonous that it shouldn't even come into the grocery store, reports the ZDF broadcast.
The World Health Organization warns against excessive nitrite intake for health reasons.
Dr.
Stefan Kabisch is a nutrition researcher at the Charité Berlin.
He told ZDF that nitrite curing salts react with meat protein.
This is problematic because it causes nitrosamines to form.
They are considered carcinogenic.
The dangerous combination of nitrite and protein occurs particularly when the products are heated, the researcher explained.
Microwave currywurst is not only heated once, but several times.
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Shocking nutritional values and ingredients
The nutritional table also shows something terrifying.
The ZDF examined several curry sausages for saturated fatty acids, salt and sugar.
Research shows that it contains around 13 grams of unhealthy, saturated fatty acids on average.
This is more than half of the maximum recommended daily amount of 20 grams, and the salt content is also appalling.
An average of 4.2 grams are contained in a package.
The maximum recommended daily amount is 6 grams. Almost 2/3 of the daily salt requirement is covered by just one package of microwave currywurst.
And there is also plenty of sugar (25.9 grams) - more than half of the maximum recommended daily amount.
As a result, the microwave curry sausage is a product that should not be consumed too often. Poor nutritional values and questionable ingredients such as nitrite curing salt and phosphate can have problematic effects on health. Politicians are also trying to bring about a change in the ingredients of finished products.
(jsch)