Meat in sausage will be replaced only by chicken: in Kazan, experts exposed the “Krakow” by checking its DNA

A consumer tasting of sausages was held on the eve of the New Year at the State ALCOHOL Inspectorate of the Republic of Tatarstan. Five types of “doctor's”, which is often used for Olivier salad, and five types of “Krakow”, suitable for slicing, were selected for testing. 

PANDEMIC HIT SAUSAGE

“Because of the CORONAVIRUS pandemic, tastings are now held less frequently, and because we began to evaluate products less often, manufacturers began to act hooligans, mislead consumers more often,” said Zhaudat Akhmetkhanov, HEAD of the State Alcohol Inspectorate of the Republic of Tatarstan. - For example, if it is written on the label that it contains beef, then it must be beef, if pork, then pork, but not chicken. Poultry MEAT should not be in the composition, but it is. The final decision is up to Rospotrebnadzor - whether we will remove these products from sale for the reason that they mislead our consumers.

Both types of sausages, selected for yesterday's tasting, have a rich history. Boiled "doctor's" appeared in the USSR in 1936 and was created from valuable natural products to improve the HEALTH of the population of the young Soviet country. Boiled-smoked "Krakow", named after the Polish city where it was "invented", has been known since the 16th century, came to RUSSIA in the 18th century.   

Sausages "Doctor's" and "Krakowska" participated in the tasting - five of each variety. All of them were bought on the same day in one of Kazan's hypermarkets. Samples were chosen according to the principle of popularity among the population and how widely the manufacturer is represented in the market of Tatarstan.

In the Doctor's group, prices varied from 220.99 to 352.99 rubles. per stick, while the cheapest sausage weighed 500 g, the most expensive - 750 g. Four producers of "doctor's" turned out to be from Tatarstan, one from the neighboring region.

In the "Krakowska" group, the weight of the products did not differ much - from 400 to 504 g, but the price significantly - from 199.90 to 447.99 rubles. for a stick. Three species were produced in the republic, two - outside of it.
Before the start of the tasting, all samples were laboratory tested for safety. The experts had to evaluate the appearance and taste of the samples hidden under the numbers on a 15-point scale.

PINK AND FIRM

Rozalia Arslanova, Head of the Department for Development and Coordination of the Internal Market of the State Alcohol Inspectorate of the Republic of Tatarstan, told the audience what ideal sausages should be like. "Doctor's", made from ground beef and pork, should have an elastic texture, without voids and heterogeneities, color - from light pink to pink. The taste is clean, moderately salty, slightly spicy.

The "Krakowska" also includes beef and pork, spices and garlic, which gives the sausage a characteristic taste. There should not be much moisture in the sausage, and the fat should be exclusively white, yellow indicates a low quality product. Both types of sausages use a preservative.

“The preservative sodium nitrite has been included in the recipe since Soviet times in order to prevent microbiological contamination of the product and fix the color,” the expert explained. - If it is just a meat product without a preservative, then when cut, oxidizing, it begins to acquire a greenish or brown color. And thanks to sodium nitrite, the sausage remains pink on the cut. Its dosage is normalized, because sodium nitrite is a poison and, when it enters the human body, it turns into nitrosamine, and this is a cancer-provoking element. Therefore, we always check sausage for sodium nitrite content. But in recent years, we have not recorded its excess.

Arslanova warned that an unnaturally saturated pink or even reddish color of the product and a long shelf life could indicate an excess of the preservative concentration in the sausage. On the sidelines, the expert admitted to journalists that she herself does not buy sausage, and for the festive Russian salad she uses only boiled meat - this is better and more reliable.

PRICE IS NOT INDICATOR

Having tasted enough of the "doctor's", the jury members recognized the best sausage from Chelny-myaso LLC, produced in the Tukaevsky district of Tatarstan. Of the options presented, this was the most expensive product. Fifth place went to the Yola brand sausage from JSC Yoshkar-Ola Meat Processing Plant. It was the cheapest of the presented sausages. However, it should be noted that the gap between the first and fifth places was insignificant and amounted to less than one point.  

In the case of Krakow, this gap was 2.5 points. The tasting commission awarded the highest score to the RM brand sausage produced in Mamadysh (RM AGRO LLC). For the price, this product is in the middle - 228.36 rubles. for a stick weighing 440 g.

Fifth place went to Miratorg brand sausage (Miratorg-Kursk LLC). This is almost the most expensive of the types of products presented at the tasting - 419.99 rubles. for a stick weighing 430 g.   

Well, the most expensive "Krakow" - brand "Remit" (LLC "Meat Processing Plant" Remit "in Podolsk) - took fourth place.

Albina Timofeeva, key account manager at RM AGRO LLC (manufacturers are also invited to a tasting so that they can compare their products with competitors) admitted that she immediately recognized “her own” “Krakow” and “doctoral” among others, who got ending up with 1st and 3rd places.  

- We have a new technologist from Moscow, and production is monitored very seriously, - Timofeeva boasted. - But I didn’t like “Krakow” at number 5 (“Miratorg”, which took the last place. - “VK”), since there is nothing in it except the taste of garlic.

ATTENTION TO DNA!

After the winners were chosen, the organizers of the tasting announced the results of laboratory tests, which were mentioned at the beginning by the head of the State Alcohol Inspectorate of the Republic of Tatarstan, Jaudat Akhmetkhanov. In all five types of "Krakow" chicken DNA and an excess of moisture content were found. This is understandable: chicken meat is much cheaper than beef and pork, but moisture gives the product weight.

“Unfortunately, cases when the information on the label does not correspond to reality are not uncommon,” Rozalia Arslanova complained. 

- I would like to stand up for manufacturers and say that it is also necessary to take into account the conditions of transportation and storage of products, - Sergei Gogin, Deputy General DIRECTOR of the Test-Tatarstan Certification and Methodological Center, took the floor. - It may have been frozen and then thawed - this may affect the moisture content.  

“But this does not affect the molecular composition,” Akhmetkhanov retorted.

Information about all the facts of false information on the labels, the department will transfer to Rospotrebnadzor, which is supposed to control the quality of the sausage, but now it is not up to it, since it has to monitor compliance with anti-COVID restrictions.