Sausage study challenges consumer confidence

MY DAUGHTER AND GRANDSON share the same birthday, August 7. They’re part of a pork-and-grain farming operation near Thamesville. To celebrate their birthdays, our family barbequed some pork sausage from their farm on the campfire last weekend.

We trust the meat packers in nearby Dresden who make sausage for them.

But what about the other millions of Canadians who aren’t fortunate enough to produce their own meat and know their butcher? In light of the new University of Guelph-led study that found high levels of mislabeling on sausages in Canada, how are consumers feeling about the massproduced products they plopped on their barbeques last weekend?

The Guelph researchers found mislabelling and cross-species contamination of meat ingredients in 20 per cent of sausage samples selected from grocery stores across the country. Most involved meat substitution, such as sausages labelled as beef also containing pork, others labelled as chicken also containing turkey, and even one pork

sausage sample containing horsemeat.

For beef, pork, chicken and turkey sausages, products were considered contaminated when more than one per cent of another meat was detected. The researchers says this ruled out trace amounts that might have resulted from incomplete cleaning of processing equipment.

But the numbers involved suggest this is not a matter of human error. Out of 27 beef sausage packages tested, seven samples also contained pork. Among 20 chicken sausage packages, four also contained turkey and one contained beef. Of 38 pork sausage packages tested, two contained beef and one, horsemeat.

The processing sector must be aware of how the whole mess impacts consumer confidence. It conjures up memories of the 2013 European horsemeat scandal, where processors there were nailed for selling beef that was actually horsemeat.

To say that’s unacceptable in Canada or any other country is an understatement. I hope the public is outraged by it, particularly given the labels in the Guelph study claimed the sausage contained only one kind of meat.

But at the same time, I hope people are heartened that homegrown technology has advanced to the point where such problems can be brought to light. The whistle can be blown on practices that dupe the public, and that working with the university, the government is getting on top of the issue (this study was funded by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency).

The analytical tools used to prove mislabeling are part of the DNA barcoding technology developed at Guelph that allows scientists to identify species of organisms, using a short standardized region of genetic material.

“This study demonstrates that the technology is capable of monitoring the industry in a way we were never able to do before,” says Bob Hanner, associate director of the Canadian Barcode of Life Network and a professor at the University of Guelphbased Biodiversity Institute of Ontario. “It’s just one example of how DNA testing is becoming a standard for food ingredient authentication.”

Originally, the technology was developed to identify the millions of species of organisms on Earth.

But it’s become clear over the past decade or so that at the consumer levels, this technology can make a huge contribution to food fraud.

The lab that discovered the sausage mislabeling is the same one that found the high level of misrepresentation of fish by some restaurants and retailers – mainly, cheaper fish being pawned off as more expensive fish.

To unsuspecting consumers, this is not only insulting, it can be dangerous, particularly to those who have some kind of food allergies. And that’s not to mention those who avoid certain kinds of protein for religious purposes. The whole thing casts a pall on processed food at a time when the public is increasingly wary of its wholesomeness, anyway.

Now for the big question: what is the processing industry going to do with this new information? No one has the patience to wait long for the answer.