A spokesman from the organisation told Globalmeatnews.com, in an exclusive interview, that the issue “irritated consumers in Germany” and led to a public discussion, resulting in the decline of frozen and convenience food sales.
However, the scandal further bolstered sales of sausage and unprocessed meat and the spokesman said these sectors were protected by a decade-old quality assurance scheme: “The various levels of the meat producing industry – farming, industry and commerce – have established a system for quality assurance more than 10 years ago, which counts more than 100,000 licensees by now.”
Beyond horsemeat
But the issue of horsemeat contamination has blown over quickly, explained Ina Stoltze, director of IFFA, the world’s largest meat exhibition. She told Globalmeatnews.com the scandal had cooled down quite quickly in Germany and Europe and said: “It was just a question of labelling, but it was cooling down in the German and European media very quickly because everyone realised it was a question of labelling and it has gone away now.”
As a result, discussion in the German meat industry has now shifted to animal welfare, the BVDF spokesman said. He explained the topic had not reached a conclusion yet, but younger people in major cities viewed modern farming companies critically.
The welfare subject is one that could become an issue, as smaller meat producers in the country are selling to larger companies, and any sniff of factory farming can cause protests. The spokesman explained: “Additionally companies in Germany are subject to distinctive consolidation processes and are merging to large competitive units.”