summer is barbecue time. However, the news about Corona Mass ejections in German slaughterhouses ruin many of the appetite. The recent scandals have not only laid the terrible working conditions and the often catastrophic keeping animals in the open. Many Consume questions now: Where can I Steaks, chicken and sausages supposed to buy safely?

is accused of discounters is always to obtain your meat from large companies that take the quality as accurate. A published earlier this year Greenpeace investigation has taken to the meat offering of the nine leading food providers - including discounters such as Aldi, Lidl, Rewe, Real, and Kaufland - under the magnifying glass. The result: 88 percent of the fresh meat come from "precarious husbandry conditions". However, many butcher shops which keep many consumers is the better Alternative, obtain your meat now, from large-scale farms. For the grill party shopping?

Dirk Ludwig is a master butcher and an expert in meat processing. He teaches at the meat school in Augsburg, budding meat Sommeliers and is in the scene in Germany as a "meat-Pope" is known. Ludwig says: The quality of meat is determined by a variety of factors. "There are 35 criteria, which are sometimes more and sometimes less, the quality of meat products affect," said Ludwig in an interview with FOCUS Online.

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expert Ludwig says: "Cheap meat is not always bad. And good meat is not always expensive.“ So it could well be that you can get hold of in the discount shelf of a good sirloin steak. Nevertheless, according to Ludwig, that lies behind the low prices in discounters-offer is usually a certain logic to it. "Working time, effort, and animal welfare will be reflected of course also in the price", the meat expert. This also has an impact on the taste. "Age, feeding, Transport, and stress-free slaughter determine the quality of meat," says Ludwig.

But how can one identify as a consumer, whether a Steak or a loin ethically and under fair conditions was produced and also still tastes good?

it is Advisable, generally, to buy meat from the Region, recommends Ludwig. Of the seals of the butcher, however, holds less. Because even if visibility and control are good, it would nothing about the actual meat quality statements. The expert recommends to rely on my own eyes. Because external criteria can provide information on the quality of the product and the consumer as the guiding. These include:

• color: What is the color of the meat has, ideally, depends on the animal and its age, explains Ludwig. In young animals the flesh is brighter than in the elderly. In the case of beef, the following applies: Only the gate should be light red, the outer edge dark red. Pig meat must be red to light red and tender. Another indication for quality meat was also a slightly shiny surface.
• marble: Good meat, you know in addition to a fine Fat marbling, says the meat Sommelier. "Meanwhile, it is known that the lean meat provides the optimum enjoyment. Today, pigs and cattle are, therefore, asked again, having a little more fat in the muscles, so marbled meat supply.“ The fat deposits "melt" in the preparation and make the meat tender, juicy and make for a good flavor, he explains.
• smell : The raw meat should Ludwig, according to a fresh and unobtrusive smell, so no more intense Aroma.
• shape: high-Quality meat was fixed and would yield to finger pressure, so Ludwig.
• fiber structure: to pay attention In the preparation of the meat, the expert advises his customers to the fibre structure of the meat: So fine fibrous part, are suitable pieces for roasting, and cuts with a solid, coarser fibers would be for Braising or cooking is ideal.

In the eyes of the meat Sommeliers, each customer would have to define but in the end, for themselves, what quality means to him and how he defines you. "And then, only questions, questions, questions at the counter help, to find not only the right meat, but the butcher of trust," says Ludwig.

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He is self-critical consumer and are of the opinion that one should prefer less, but good meat to eat, what is the cost accordingly more. "Corona has the effect but a positive effect: We notice that more and more people in the light of the events in the case of Tönnies and co. their own behavior, their consumption of meat and of intelligent and high-quality shopping," he says.

The meat Sommelier, self-operates its operation already in the fourth Generation, and leads to a modern butcher's shop out of a picture book. "We are on the flat Land in the state of Hesse, and still have a private slaughter-house," he says. Every Monday, the farmer brings from the Region of the pigs, the slaughter of operation and dismantled. "This is probably what many consumers in the ideal case," he says and smiles. Cem Özdemir: "people like the Uniform belongs to stripped – and-now" FOCUS Online/Wochit Cem Özdemir: "people like the Uniform belongs undressed and instantly" The world is better than your bad news - FOCUS Online provides you every Friday with the best stories from the field perspectives. Subscribe here for free Newsletter:

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