Hardtimes lead to a boom for sausages

May 1986

Hard times have led to a sausage boom in the county, where an estimated 68 per cent of families now eat sausages two or three times a week.

A survey by students from Good Counsel in New Ross found that a whopping 16 per cent of families surveyed in the New Ross area include sausages in their diet every single day.

The survey may have been compiled in New Ross and surrounding areas, but the pattern is no different across the rest of the county.

In job-starved Wexford, for instance, George Herterich – a pork butcher who has been famous for years for his home-made bangers – sells 1,200 pounds of sausages per week.

And he says there is definitely a connection between the banger boom and people having less spending power because of unemployment. Sausages are a good wholesome food at a cheap price, and are also every handy, he points out.

Wexford butcher Danny Cullimore finds that while sausages have always been big sellers, they have become an even bigger favourite of children in recent years.

He says it is important to make sure sausages are both meaty and tasty. ‘ The flavouring is what people go for,’ he says.

Health Inspector Fiona Redmond is charged with the task of testing locally-sold sausages for preservatives, and she gives the thumbs-up to Wexford bangers.

The permitted preservative in sausages is SO2, and so far, Fiona – who works with the South Eastern Health Board at the County Clinic on Grogan’s Road – has had no cause to issue any Wexford butchers with warnings under the Sale of Food and Drugs Act.

According to Fiona, while EEC guidelines have been laid down in relation to preservative levels, there are no standards in relation to meat content in sausages. But companies which label their sausages with a higher meat content than is actually present can be caught under the Trade Descriptions Act.