Poultry salami from NRW contains pork - but this is not stated on the front of the package
Created: 08/16/2022, 16:33
By: Benjamin Stroka
Salami is one of the most popular cold cuts in Germany (symbol image).
©Panthermedia/Imago
A poultry salami occupied the administrative courts in North Rhine-Westphalia for more than two years.
The sausage also contains pork, but it doesn't say so on the front.
Münster – Statistically speaking, every person in Germany eats around 55 kilograms of meat and sausages per year (as of 2021).
The numbers have been declining in recent years, but despite numerous vegan alternatives, meat, but also sausage and cold cuts, are still part of everyday life for millions of people in this country.
No wonder, then, that the corresponding shelves in the supermarkets are still full to bursting.
When it comes to cold cuts, salami of all kinds is one of the most popular products.
Such a salami variety was now even a topic of dispute before the Higher Administrative Court in North Rhine-Westphalia.
More specifically, a chicken salami that also contains pork, as reported by 24RHEIN.
Chicken salami also contains pork bacon – but you don't see it immediately on the package
The background: The meat products factory Franz Wiltmann GmbH & Co. KG from Versmold (Gütersloh district in North Rhine-Westphalia) offers a variety of salami in supermarkets nationwide whose packaging is only marked on the front with the term "poultry salami".
Only when you look at the back does it become clear: in addition to poultry, pork is also used in this salami.
The addition "with pork bacon" is printed in smaller type on the back.
The list of ingredients makes it clear: 100 grams of salami are made from 124 grams of poultry (chicken and turkey) and 13 grams of bacon.
Note: During salami production, moisture is removed, so the end product weighs less than the ingredients used.
The district of Gütersloh complained that this packaging was misleading.
The case ended up in court.
In 2020, the Minden Administrative Court ruled against the lawsuit brought by the manufacturer Wiltmann and agreed with the district of Gütersloh.
The designation "poultry salami" without any further reference on the front is actually misleading.
Poultry salami also contains pork - consumer center accuses manufacturers of trickery
But even more than two years later, nothing has changed in the packaging of the chicken salami.
The reason: The Wiltmann company appealed after the Minden judgment and took the lawsuit to the NRW Higher Administrative Court in Münster.
The judgment from Minden was therefore not final.
Because Wiltmann sees himself right and explained that pork bacon is not meat, but "used as a commercially available, technologically necessary source of fat and expected by consumers as an ingredient in the production of a salami".
The Hamburg consumer advice center saw things differently, and in the meantime also got involved.
The consumer advocates accused the sausage manufacturer from NRW of trickery.
"We think the addition 'with pork bacon' should be marked on the front of the packaging," demanded the consumer advice center.
"Consumers are fully informed by the information on our packaging," countered the meat manufacturer to 24hamburg in May 2022.
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Poultry salami also contains pork - Higher Administrative Court makes a clear decision
The Münster Higher Administrative Court has now made a final decision in this case – and dismissed the meat manufacturer's complaint.
"The statement 'poultry salami' on the front of the packaging gives the consumer the wrong impression of the properties of the food, namely that the salami contains only poultry and not pork," the OVG judges said in their reasoning.
This false impression is not corrected by the information on the back of the packaging.
Rather, the front of the packaging is decisive and the current labeling is misleading.
The judgment cannot be appealed.
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