Bavarian judges against the commercial exploitation of broken sausages in awarded quality sausages

The Bavarian Administrative Court (BayVGH) ruled in two rulings on March 12, 2013 that meat and sausage products made using broken products, reworked sausage or reprocessed sausage meat are not highlighted with references such as “delicacy or top quality” in the May be brought into circulation.

The plaintiff in the case Az. 9 B 09.2135, a major butcher from the Upper Palatinate, was unsuccessful in her action against a decision prohibiting her from bringing meat products into circulation with such prominent information before the Regensburg Administrative Court. In the case Az. 9 B 09.2162, the administrative court in Munich, at the request of a local meat product manufacturer, determined that cooked sausage products that are produced with further processing of heated meat can be described as "top quality" without misleading the consumer.

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Mislabelled horse meat products

On 12 February 2013, the German authorities received a notification from the authorities in Luxembourg via the European Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) about possibly incorrectly labeled products containing horsemeat.

Extensive investigations by the food companies concerned and the responsible supervisory authorities have meanwhile confirmed the suspicion that products containing horsemeat without appropriate labeling were also placed on the German market.

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Horsemeat scandal: foodwatch calls for specific inspection obligations for companies and penalties based on sales - retailers must be liable for their own brands

After the Europe-wide consumer deception with horsemeat, Ilse Aigner in turn deceived the consumers with her "Action Plan". According to the consumer organization foodwatch, the measures that the minister presented as a basis for consultation for today’s special meeting of the federal and state governments represent an announcement policy without consequences.

"Mrs. Aigner spares those actually responsible and uses bogus measures to hide the fact that she does not want to eliminate the crucial weak points," criticized Matthias Wolfschmidt, deputy foodwatch managing director. "Retailers must be responsible for their own brands and be prosecuted as perpetrators in the event of deception or health hazards."

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Horsemeat scandal: Ministry launches new website about product recalls - criticism of the food trade and food industry

NRW Consumer Protection Minister Johannes Remmel regrets the refusal of the German food trade to provide extensive information for consumers on a central Internet platform in the wake of the scandal surrounding incorrectly declared beef deliveries. “Now we're approaching two dozen recalls and sales stops, and that's creating a lot of confusion. I don't understand why retailers and the food industry don't accommodate consumers and publish all product recalls on a central platform. This refusal is not in the interests of the customers,” criticized Remmel. The state government of North Rhine-Westphalia has now drawn conclusions from the insufficient information provided by part of the food industry and has launched its own website on the subject.

Starting today, Monday, the new website www.rueckrufe.nrw.de will provide an overview of products that the food trade has withdrawn from the market over the past few days due to proven finds or suspected incorrect declarations. “The scandal has reached such dimensions that every day new products are mentioned that are being taken off the market by a large number of companies. Previously, consumers had to call up each company page individually to get an idea. This gap has been closed with the launch of the first nationwide website on the horsemeat scandal. It has been agreed with the other federal states that corresponding pages will also be set up there.”

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Horse meat scandal: Möllenberg demands regional proof of origin and protection of informants

"A national action plan with extended investigations, up-to-date consumer information and an early warning system, as Federal Consumer Minister Aigner intends to present it today, is not enough. What is needed is sustainability instead of action. The course must be set for the long term." For years, the Food, Enjoyment and Restaurants Union has been demanding transparency from field to table. This includes the labeling not only of all components of food, but also of the regional origin, explained the NGG chairman Franz-Josef Möllenberg. Regionality also offers protection: anonymous flows of goods are avoided.

"Even if there is no absolute protection against criminal machinations, the hurdles must be raised much higher - with legal protection of whistleblowers. Employees in production facilities or in retail are the first to draw attention to abuses and violations of applicable law and to prevent food scandals They should be better protected from legal and financial consequences, including dismissal.

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The deputy chairman of the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Ulrich Kelber, and consumer policy spokeswoman Elvira Drobinski-Weiss explain the horsemeat scandal as follows:

Now the goat is turning into a gardener: Ilse Aigner's consumer information law prevents the authorities from being able to name the manufacturers and affected finished products in the event of deception. As soon as the next scandal comes, she becomes active. That's a lie. We call on Ilse Aigner to answer questions about this in the consumer committee on Wednesday. Two years ago, we demanded the publication of all official investigation results. Only if manufacturers and retail chains have to fear for their reputation will things change.

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Nicole Maisch, spokeswoman for consumer policy for the B90/The Greens parliamentary group on the action plan for the horsemeat scandal

Aigner's policy is scandal-driven window dressing. In the past, she has always rejected the proposed measures she has now presented - neither with the changes to the Consumer Information Act (VIG) nor the Food and Feed Code (LFGB), Aigner has not advocated more transparency and acceptance of responsibility by the food companies. The demand for more transparency in meat products was also prevented by the federal government at EU level.

Aigner's policy of only reacting to scandals is a scandal in itself. We demand that Aigner now implements the measures quickly and puts an end to her image as an announcement minister. This includes labeling that makes it clear where an animal was born, raised and slaughtered - also for processed meat products. We also need a binding regional label so that consumers can consciously choose regional products. Cruel animal long-distance transports halfway around the world must finally be banned. We demand that animal transports in Germany be limited to a maximum of four hours. Long, international production chains that are geared towards the lowest possible price and flows of goods that are difficult to trace are a gateway for fraud and deception. The misguided export promotion by the federal government is also partly responsible for the horsemeat scandal.

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Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's consumer protection minister on the "Horsemeat

Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Consumer Protection Minister Dr. Till Backhaus in the action plan adopted by the federal government on Monday after the horsemeat scandal in wrongly labeled finished products. It is a first step in order to be able to more reliably assess a consumer risk from residues of veterinary medicines in the current situation through official measures and to record the extent of fraud. But, according to Dr. Till Backhaus, "Consumer Minister Ilse Aigner - together with black and yellow members of parliament in Brussels - postponed proposals for better labeling of the origin of meat and meat ingredients until the end of the day. The SPD in the European Parliament has long wanted better labeling and traceability of meat. Unfortunately, the federal government first needed a scandal to push through a Europe-wide labeling requirement for processed food and not just for raw products. It is high time that the EU Commission has now promised to speed up its work.”

The minister welcomes the fact that, in addition to the EU requirements, additional samples of meat products are to be tested in Germany for other undeclared meat ingredients by the end of April.

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Horsemeat and other cases of fraud: cheap is not the problem - and regional alone is not the solution

 

Horsemeat is declared as beef, and consumers are to blame for the deception scandal - after all, they just want to buy everything cheaply. The consumer organization foodwatch has accused the food industry and politicians of using this perfidious argument to blame consumers for their own misconduct. "The problem is not cheap, just as little as regional is the only solution. Industry and some politicians are initiating a mendacious debate here to distract from their own omissions," criticized foodwatch's deputy managing director Matthias Wolfschmidt.

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Scandal with well-known patterns - a comment

So this time horse meat in lasagne, which hardly anyone would have expected. It almost seems only a matter of time before a new scandalous grievance in the food chain stirs people's minds. And then, after a wave of outrage and endless rounds of discussion, back to business as usual. What remains is a bland aftertaste - as almost usual. And only literally.

The most recent example of consumer deception due to false declarations is inevitably reminiscent of the "rotten meat scandal" trade in meat whose sell-by date has expired. Because it's about meat again, about false declarations, behind which there is obviously criminal activity. The real health risks were and are small in both cases. At that time - unlike the EHEC events in 2011 or the case of the frozen strawberries contaminated with noroviruses in 2012 - there were no health problems in the population that could have been demonstrably associated with the re-declared meat .  

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More than half of consumers feel they have been knowingly deceived by the industry

Further loss of trust in the food industry / One third of consumers do without ready meals made from beef / Regional origin much more important than brand name / No general rejection of horse meat

The current horsemeat scandal is once again putting massive pressure on the image of the food industry. German consumers continue to lose trust in manufacturers and brands. Compared to the dioxin scandal, resignation to the effectiveness of political, economic and personal consequences is emerging. That's according to a representative poll by Ketchum Pleon, conducted by YouGov.

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