Mince and sausages have often been a subject of much debate in South Africa. Who can forget the headlines announcing that we were eating donkey and horse in our beef patties?
The subject of this debate centered around R 2718 of 23 November 1990 – Regulations Governing the Composition and Labelling of Raw Boerewors, Raw Species Sausage and Raw Mixed-Species Sausage. But what about your burger? Or mince for that matter?
The Department of Agriculture, forestry and fisheries are trying to get a handle on these products and a draft regulation was published last October.
R1138 of October 2018 makes provision for several classes of raw meat products:
- Raw minced meat.
- Raw mixed-species minced meat.
- Raw flavoured ground meat or Raw flavoured minced meat.
- Raw boerewors.
- Raw species sausage.
- Raw mixed-species sausage.
- Raw burger, Raw patty and Raw hamburger patty.
- Raw banger.
- Raw braaiwors.
- Geographical Indication (GI) Raw processed meat products.
So, what will be the difference between minced meat & ground meat?
It is about the meat content:
1. Raw minced meat —
- shall consist of a mixture of finely chopped or comminuted meat from one or two or more animal or bird species(known as mixed species);
- shall contain no added food additives, foodstuffs, water or offal
- shall comply with the following percentage fat content for the fat content claim concerned:
| Fat content claim | Fat content (%) |
| Extra lean, Extra trim, or any similar wording | ≤5 |
| Lean, Trim or Trimmed of fat, or any similar wording | ≥5 to ≤10 |
| Regular, or any similar wording | ≥10 to ≤30; and |
2. On the other hand, ground “meat” …
- shall have a fat content of no more than 30 percent;
- shall contain no offal;
- may contain other foodstuffs; and
- may contain food additives to the extent permitted for in the regulations published under the Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act, 1972 (Act No. 54 of 1972).
What about your patty?
| Category/ Designation |
Permissible ingredients |
Fat content claim |
Fat content (%) (of fat as analysed) |
Total meat content (%) |
| 1. Ground Burger or Ground Patty | a) Shall be manufactured from meat only.
(b) Shall contain no offal or any other added ingredients. (c) May contain a maximum of 0.02 grams of calcium per 100 grams of the product mass. |
Extra Lean, Extra trimmed of fat or any similar wording
Lean, Trimmed of fat or any similar wording Medium Regular |
≤10
≤17 ≤23 ≤30 |
≥99.6 |
| 2. Burger or Patty or Hamburger Patty |
(a) Shall contain no added ingredients other than – (i) cereal products or starch; (ii) vinegar, spices, herbs, salt or flavourants fit for human consumption; (iii) food additives to the extent permitted for in the regulations published under the Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act, 1972 (Act No. 54 of 1972); and (iii) water. (b) Shall contain no offal. (c) May contain – |
Extra Lean, Extra trimmed of fat or any similar wording
Lean, Trimmed of fat or any similar wording Regular |
≤5
≥5 to ≤10 ≥10 to ≤30 |
≥70 |
| 3. Economy Burger or Econo Burger; Economy Patty or Econo Patty; Budget Burger; Econo Hamburger patty; Budget Hamburger patty, or any similar wording |
(a) Shall contain no added ingredients other than –
(i) cereal products or starch or vegetable protein; (b) Shall contain no offal. (c) May contain – |
* | ≤30 | ≥55 |
* No specification
Please note the regulation is NOT YET LAW but some of these requirements are covered by the labelling regulations, R146 of 2010, where a product must contain a label that shows ALL its ingredients in descending order of quantity.
But it is time to start reading your meat labels.
