The European Commission has banned the UK’s meat producers form using Desinewed meat (DSM); the flesh left on bones after butchering that is grated off mechanically to create a cheap mince-like substance. This is then used to ‘bulk up’ food products to portray a higher meat content and quality to consumers.
Kevin McWhinney, MD of McWhinney’s Sausages commented:
“To our huge disappointment and disgust even the majority of our own industry ‘experts’ are outraged that DSM can no longer be considered as meat. We are overjoyed that this is now no longer the case, as we have always argued that DSM is not meat. Despite its ban some manufacturers have used new technology to produce this product, but have called it by a new name to try and pull the wool over the eyes of the industry and the consumer.”
The Food Standards Agency is enforcing this new ban because the European Commission sees DSM and MSM (Mechanically Separated Meat) as the same.
“Unsurprisingly, the ‘big boys’ of the industry – the British Meat Processers Association (BMPA) are horrified that using DSM is to cease. These are the manufacturers that see profit as king, with product quality a distant second. I’m not portraying any manufacturer as having done anything illegal- as they haven’t. I’m simply delighted that after all this time the industry is soon to be on a level playing field. This product can no longer and under the (2004) regulations, should not have been, referred to as meat.”
McWhinney’s has a clear ethos on using any variety of mechanically reclaimed meat- never has, never will. The company hasn’t an issue with other manufacturers producing cheap products with the aid of DSM, but it has always battled the fact that with the laws allowing DSM to be classified as ‘meat’, its customers have struggled to understand the reasons for our higher prices.
Now with this new law announcing DSM as non-meat, many others are now adapting their product in order to remain legal.
McWhinney states: “Since we have never used DSM, we have always been more expensive and buyers have always been able to source other sausages cheaper. Given DSM’s right to be called meat, the fact that others in the industry were getting away with it was just a hard pill for us to swallow. Now, a new era is beginning when the entire industry will be legally obliged to declare the meat content of a product separately from its DSM content. Our reaction…it’s about time.”
McWhinney’s Sausages advise that this is taken a step further whereby product details are available not only on retail food packaging, but throughout food consumption. The experts suggest that diners in restaurants, bars, and cafes must be in a position to know what they are eating.
McWhinney added: “
It is vital to let every food consumer decide what they want and what they don’t. In terms of the use of pork and poultry DSM- by all means allow those who use it to use it, but clearly and concisely declare it and let the public know that it is in their food! Let the customer make their own informed decisions.”
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