Eco test
Grilled sausages in the test: if you want to eat “very good” sausages, you go for organic
Grilled sausages: A question of attitude
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Anyone who loves grilled sausages should use organic products. They cost significantly more than conventional sausages. In return, the animals have a better life. “Ökotest” tested 19 boiled pork sausages.
Poor pig: If you buy cheap and conventional, you save on animal welfare. Cut off curly tails, crammed animals that only leave their stable once in a lifetime. On the way to the slaughterhouse. Pigs stand on slatted floors, and the ammonia fumes they inhale from their excrement damage their lungs. There’s GM soy for breakfast and antibiotics for dessert. That’s the standard, that’s what the law allows. Most pigs that end up on the grill as bratwurst had such a pig’s life.
So eating grilled sausage is a question of attitude. “Ökotest” took a closer look at 19 sausages, and the result is clear: if you want to enjoy your grilled sausage with a clear conscience, go for organic. But there is one downside: Unfortunately, the selection is limited. Only two products completely convinced the testers and received the top grade “very good”. These include the grilled sausages from Alnatura (9.69 euros per 500 g), which bear the Bioland organic seal, and the Thuringian grilled sausages from Edeka (6.24 euros). Four other organic sausages are at least “good”.
Mixed notes of keeping and mineral oil in the sausage
“Ökotest” writes that everything from “poor pig” to “poor sow” is included in terms of housing conditions. Organic pigs have more exercise and more space. The conventionally reared pigs live a short life, densely packed, without exercise, without fresh air, on slatted floors without straw and with little activity material. However, when the animals are stressed and bored, this leads to behavioral problems such as bloody tail biting. For this reason, the tip of the curly tail is cut off from the piglets in industrial farming. Organic pigs are at least spared the painful procedure. But not everything is piggy pink in the organic sector either: the male animals are castrated so that the harsh taste of the boar meat does not come onto the market. In order to prevent this, consumers would first have to change their taste preferences.
Then there is the problem with the mineral oil components: Twelve out of 19 bratwurst samples are contaminated with saturated mineral oil hydrocarbons. In addition, except for the organic sausages and the Meica Bratmaxe, they contain phosphates that make the sausage meat smoother. Added phosphates can increase blood phosphate levels, which could be dangerous, especially for people with kidney problems.