Analytical Report - Continental sausages

Dried meats such as chorizo and salami have become increasingly popular in the UK.

Chorizo is a spicy sausage popular in Spain and Portugal. There are lots of regional varieties but all are made with pork and flavoured with paprika. There are two main types, the air-dried sausage that can be sliced and eaten like salami and smaller fresh sausages that must be cooked before eating.

Salami is the Italian name for sausages made from a mixture of raw meat, such as pork, beef or veal and flavoured with spices and herbs. Salami can be salted, smoked or air-dried.

To check compliance with food labelling requirements and the nutrition content, a small sample of 10 such products were analysed for fat and salt content.

Summary of results

Where nutrition information was voluntarily provided on the label, all were sufficiently accurate.

The findings in relation to fat and salt analysis are indicated in the table below.

All of the samples, if bearing the Food Standards Agency Traffic Light Front of Pack Labelling would be required to bear a ‘red’ light for fat, saturated fat and salt. In some cases, the sausages contain over twice the amount of fat, three times as much saturated fat and three times as much salt as the lower limit for a red traffic light indication.

By their nature these are high fat and high salt products. As such they should therefore only be eaten in small quantities and not on a frequent basis.

Three of the smples were found to contain trans fat of between 0.2 and 0.4 g per 100g.

29 October, 2007