Amendment of the guidelines for meat and meat products
Amendment for offal and the labelling of vegetable protein in Germany
Dec 2020. On 29 October 2020, the German Bundesanzeiger (Federal Gazette) published detailed amendments to the new version of the Guidelines for Meat and Meat Products of 23 September 2020. You can find this amended version of the Guidelines directly on the German Bundesministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft (Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture) (only available in German). What do the changes mean for you?
Offal
The most significant change is the new definition of 'offal' in Section I, point 1.5, which now includes lungs, porcine spleen, kidneys, stomachs and gizzards with mucous membranes removed, and poultry gizzards, whereby it previously included only liver, heart and tongue. We have translated the new version for you:
"Offal' for the manufacture of meat products comprises liver, heart and tongue.
Tongues, when added as a component in a dish, are always severed in front of the epiglottis and, except for technically unavoidable remnants, are free of mucous membrane, salivary glands, hyoid bone and throat muscles.
In addition, the lungs, porcine spleen, kidneys, stomachs free of mucous membrane, rumens and poultry gizzards (footnote: In poultry gizzards, the yellow-greenish keratin-like koilin (cuticle gastrica) lining the inside of the muscle stomach is removed) are used. Use is indicated on the labelling of the food. This also applies to cases where the use of offal is listed as a possible ingredient in the specific features, e.g. mixed sausage with kidney, poultry liver sausage with gizzard.
Offal shall not be processed into meat products intended for raw consumption'. (Please note our disclaimer.)
All types of offal now covered by point 1.5 were previously approved by other guideline numbers, provided that they are clearly indicated. In addition, the rewording of the last sentence also now allows the production of raw meat products with offal intended for the consumer to cook through.
In this context, key phrase number 1.511 has been deleted and there are changes to the first paragraph of key phrase number 2.2 section I and various key phrase numbers in section II, which are purely editorial.
Foreign protein
Added foreign proteins require special labelling. An exception has so far only been applied for edible gelatin. The second sentence mentioned under 2.11.8 has been deleted and replaced by:
"Exempt from this are additives of edible gelatin in accordance with Guideline No. 1.315 and/or technologically induced additives of vegetable protein up to a maximum of 2%." (Please note our disclaimer.)
Accordingly, a further exception now applies to technologically induced foreign proteins.
Please contact us
If your product range needs to be adjusted due to these amendments and you need help with the implementation, please do contact us. We are looking forward to your inquiry!
Disclaimer
In this article, we publish translated text passages from German to English for your convenience. The original text is the official and authorised version. Eurofins is not to be held liable for damages or injury connected to the use of this information. It is the responsibility of the user to thoroughly check legal disclosures.
View the original version here:
German original version of the Guidelines for Meat and Meat Products as amended on 23.09.2020
