Healthy nutrition with meat Our responsibility for healthy food. Start Responsibility Sustainability Issues Healthy nutrition with meat Every day our meat and meat products land on the plates of hundreds of thousands of consumers. We thus make every effort to ensure that they taste good, are of high quality and contribute to a balanced, nutritious diet. Healthy nutrition with meat We make a contribution to a healthy and balanced diet with high-quality and wholesome products. The quality of the raw materials and their nutrient content is very important to us and we guarantee this through a number of production steps, inspections and tests. In doing so, as a market and technology leader in meat processing, we set standards for the entire industry. Along the value-creation chain, we process the raw materials and then the processed products so that they taste good, are safe and retain the nutrients that are important in a diet. Dennis Junkmann Quality Management Ask a question Important key figures Meat is a fixed part of a healthy and balanced diet A healthy, nutritious diet is essential, especially in our performance-oriented society. The requirement of the human body for a high nutrient density increases with age. Meat is an important supplier of nutrients and provides the body with essential proteins, vitamins and minerals, amongst other things. At the same time, when including meat in a diet, care must be taken to ensure that not too much fat and salt are absorbed. On the whole, meat and meat products have a fixed role in a balanced diet. The extensive range of products and numerous preparation options offer a wide variety of flavours and enable a balanced diet. During the manufacture, we meet the changing goals and needs of consumers, e.g. with the cut type; inspection and reduction of the fat and salt content; and gentle, nutrient-retaining further processing. Nutrition pyramid, source: DGE Nutrition circle, source: DGE Benefits of a diet that includes meat Meat and meat products are important components of a wholesome diet. Together with other animal products, such as fish and eggs, these make a significant contribution to supplying the body with proteins. Furthermore, the human body is very efficient at utilising animal proteins, whereas plant-based proteins can only be absorbed to a limited extent. Meat plays a key role as a foodstuff for the absorption of vitamins and minerals. On the one hand, it contains a variety of these important nutrients; on the other hand, the consumption of meat increases the absorption of nutrients such as zinc and iron from plant-based foods. For people with an increased protein requirement, meat and meat products are particularly important suppliers of nutrients. Valuable nutrients in different types of meat Meat and other animal-based foods are characterised by a high protein content and the high biological quality of these proteins. Plant-based foods require intensive processing and treatment to achieve a similar nutrient density. According to experts, a combination of plant-based and animal-based proteins is particularly recommended. More information on a wholesome diet is available at www.dge.de. Pork provides iron and vitamin B1 Pork is an excellent provider of iron Pork contains a lot of vitamin B1 Pork also scores points for the vitamin B6 content Beef: all-rounder and supplier of iron Beef is the all-round mineral provider Beef is the most valuable source of B vitamins Our work Tönnies supports a fact-based approach to the topic of meat in the diet. Meat and meat products are important components of a wholesome diet. Together with other animal products, such as fish and eggs, these make a significant contribution to supplying the body with proteins and essential amino acids. Proteins are the basic building blocks of our body. All proteins are created from the same blocks, the amino acids. Of the 20 different amino acids from which all proteins in the human body are created, there are eight amino acids which cannot be created by the body itself. These amino acids, also known as essential amino acids, must be supplied to the body through food. Meat and other animal-based foods contain all essential amino acids in sufficient quantities. Table of protein content in different foodstuffs As the quantity of food ingested decreases with age and under-provision of proteins leads to a reduction in muscle mass, an adequate supply of protein is particularly important for older people. In this regard, the German Food Association (Gesellschaft für Ernährung [DGE]) recommends that older people have a 25 per cent higher protein intake with 1.0 g protein per kilogram of body weight. As an abundant source of protein like almost no other foodstuff, meat can thus contribute to a balanced diet. For clear information, the basic nutrition information is given on every end package in the form of a Nutrition Table. We seek an exchange with scientists and technical experts in order to expand our knowledge on the subject of healthy eating with meat. In the multitude of scientific studies, however, it is not always easy to keep track of things. The recommendations of the German Nutrition Society (DGE) provide suitable guidance for consumers. Further information from the DGE can be found at www.dge.de. Finally, the consumer should decide for themselves, based on which information and personal experiences he takes as much meat and when to be. He is responsible for his personal well-being and a balanced diet and has sufficient sources of information to eat responsibly for his body and his health. Our actions for wholesome meat enjoyment As a meat processing company, it is our goal to contribute to a healthy, wholesome diet. The meat processed by us is an important provider of proteins, vitamins and minerals for the consumer. Our extensive range, from the raw meat to the ready-to-eat convenience product, offers practical and varied options for creating an individual menu. Our products have been subject to strict, company-internal checks for years to ensure that they meet the demands of retailers and consumers for a low fat and salt content. However, in recent years, eating habits have changed significantly. On the one hand, knowledge of healthy eating continues to increase in responsible consumers. Consequently for many consumers, awareness of a diet that is as healthy as possible is increasing. As a result, more and more consumers are becoming aware of their intolerances and are adopting an appropriate diet. On the other hand, diet is increasingly becoming an expression of one’s own identity. People take an approach and decide – if possible, on a daily basis – to primarily eat regional products, to eat in as sustainable a way as possible or to eat a vegetarian diet. These all have implications for the products offered by retailers to customers. This change in demand also raises some important issues for Tönnies as a meat producer. Reduction of fat content Increasing weight-consciousness has caused a greater demand for lower fat meat for some time now both in Germany and in the rest of Europe. This has caused a number of adjustments. Pig farmers changed their rearing methods decades ago and adjusted the content of the animal feed to reduce the fat in the animals. At the same time we, as producers, helped to reduce the fat content in cuts requested by the retailers. Nowadays, the majority of meat cuts are already created with minimum fat during the pre-butchering phase (see photo on right). The same applies to fine cutting. For this reason, quick-fry cuts of pork, such as schnitzels, medallions and minute steaks with a fat content of under three per cent, are today considered low-fat foods. Development of cutting The main challenge is in reducing the fat content and at the same time ensuring that the meat is tasty. The fat is an important flavour carrier in pork and beef as it holds the fat-soluble flavourings. The marbling of the meat is the best indicator of this. The finer the veins of fat that branch off in the piece of meat, the better the fat flavour carrier is distributed within the meat. With most cuts of meat, a fat content of approx. 2 to 2.5 per cent is ideal so that first-class taste and flavour combine with as little fat as possible. Table of fat contents of selected foods Tönnies has made a significant contribution to producing cuts of meat for the trade that are significantly lower in fat than 20 years ago and have a high-quality, first-class taste. Pig carcasses today, for example, consist of around 60 percent muscle meat. The fat content is less than 20 percent. Beef pieces are lower in fat overall. Many cuts of beef today contain less than 10 percent fat. Schnitzel and pork loin now only have a fat content of around 2 percent. Salt content in meat and meat products Salt is one of the most important condiments in the kitchen and is also used in industrial meat production. At Tönnies we use salt in the manufacture of our products for sensory reasons, in other words, for taste, and to ensure maximum possible microbial safety and thus a longer shelf life. Salt is an important ingredient that gives sausage in particular a longer shelf life and improves safety. What actually is salt? Salt is made up of sodium and chloride ions. Sodium has a weight proportion of approx. 40 per cent. According to some scientific studies, the sodium part is considered one reason that susceptible persons tend to develop high blood pressure if their salt intake is high. The World Health Organization recommends consuming a maximum of 5 – 6 g of salt per day. Salt consumption in Germany is around 8.4 g / day for women and around 10 g / day for men, so on average you consume more than the recommended amount (www.verbraucherzentrale.de). In order to reduce the intake of salt, many food producers in this country have been checking the salt content in their products for a long time and are constantly improving their recipes. We at Tönnies have also been working for years on changing individual recipes in sauces, marinades and processed products in order to keep the salt content in our products low. Using software-supported calculation models, we continuously monitor the salt content in our products and recipes and thus reduce it as much as possible while maintaining the same product shelf life. In principle, we therefore also offer a wide range of unseasoned fresh meat in order to enable individual addition of salt. Consumers therefore have the opportunity to decide for themselves how much salt they want to add. Table of salt content in different meat products The expert Questions on a healthy diet with meat: What is the shelf life of different fresh meat products? Which nutrients does meat contain? What is the difference between red and white meat? Why does meat belong in a balanced diet? Is a vegetarian or vegan diet unhealthy? Does eating meat cause cancer? Does Tönnies use the Nutri-Score for the nutritional labeling of its products? For which population groups is the regular consumption of meat particularly recommended? Ask us! Your opinion and questions are important to us. Please ask if you have a particular interest or do not understand something. Here you have the opportunity to form an opinion at first hand. Our contact partner Dennis Junkmann from Quality Management answers your relevant questions here. If the content of the questions is the same, we group the answers together. Your name Your email address* Animal Protection during the Slaughter Process Food safety Animal Welfare in Animal Husbandry Protection of resources Employer Healthy nutrition with meat Antibiotics Climate protection in animal husbandry Others Your message I agree that my data will be stored and processed for the purpose of this request. Dennis Junkmann Quality Management About Tönnies The Tönnies Group is a family company that is active at several levels of the food industry. The international company operates in eight divisions, has approximately 16,500 employees, and generates annual sales in the billions. The core business of the company, which was established in 1971, concerns the slaughter, butchering, processing and refining of pigs, sows and cattle. IMPRINT | DATE PROTECTION