Good Food Manufacturing Practice made easy by

Theron`s Meat Products

We all live in a society where information are at the tip of our fingers. Most of the time we are so overwhelmed with the tidal wave of information, we do not know where to start or what to believe as fundamentally true.

In the year 2015 the amount of healthy diets on the market, in books and on the world wide web is actually incomprehensible!

There is a lot of hype about what to eat and what not to eat. What will make you FAT today, is actually good for you tomorrow! (Pardon the FAT-PUN!)

Processed meats have been dubbed the “bad boy” of all meat products  in many a dietary discussion on the internet. The most common problem with processed meats, tend to be the perception that sausages, polonies and hamburger patties are made from offal meats. Add the believe that these products are loaded with unhealthy fats and “killed off” with huge amounts of preservatives (of which salts and mono sodium glutamate are to name a few of the culprits) and the “threat” that a single Russian can send you to sudden death, becomes a reality to many uninformed consumers.

When following the new Banting diet, many a worshiper will now tell you traditionally smoked bacon, kassler chops, beef or pork spare ribs, traditional salami, mince, lean chicken breasts, smoked chicken breasts, roast beef, pastrami and even 100% lean meat hamburger patties is not only good for you, it will aid in your weight loss!

How to make sense of this all?

It is important for today’s consumer to make use of the scientific studies available online and to arm themselves with legislation governing good food manufacturing processes.

Knowing what goes into your food, I believe is winning half the battle. We don`t want hidden chemicals,unhealthy fats and sugars, or too much salt and bad preservatives to be hidden in our food, without our knowledge that it is there.

Find a Company that is proud to state that they adhere to the following good food and safety hygiene regulations. Theron`s Meat Products pride themselves in strict selection processes when it comes to the buying of raw materials from service providers, and follow good food and hygiene practices in manufacturing their product range. (Adhering to the foodstuffs-cosmetics-and-disinfectants-act-541974-, R96:2012, ISO9001, SANS10049:2012, and the R214:2013. These codes might seem to be Greek to the average consumer, but is accessible to read online.

Theron`s Meat products encourage the general public to empower themselves with information on healthy food manufacturing practices. According to Mrs Sonja-Liezel Theron (Marketing Manager of the Company) it is of the utmost importance that the consumer know their rights and learn how to read food labels, in order to be well informed about what they eat and the effect on their general health. It is with this in mind that Theron`s Meat proudly adhere to the label legislation act R 146:2010, and declare all content in their products by NAME.

Read the labels on food products and if the codes of ingredients do not state the NAME, but rather E05 for instance, demand decoding in order to know what that code stands for.

Remember to check sugar content when the product state LOW FAT. Food manufacturers either need fat,  salt or sugar to make products tasty. Often LOW FAT products will have ADDED SUGAR or SALT hidden in the content.

It is a good indication that a manufacturer has nothing to hide if they state for example:

Theron`s Boerewors: 95% lean pork meat, 3% fat, 1.5% water content and .05% preservatives including salt, dextrose, mono sodium glutamate.

Consumers can follow up on these acts by visiting the following websites:

http://www.thefoodsafetynetwork.co.za/

http://www.eufic.org/block/en/show/nutrition-labelling/

After reading scientific information on food products ,balance it with what you know is good for your body and help you shape up. All that is left, is to use common sense in making healthier choices for your own unique situation. No one knows your body and personal preferences better than yourself. I firmly believe that by the age of thirty, the average intelligent person knows his or her body well enough to know what causes weight gain and how to loose the unwanted, ugly fat and lead a healthier lifestyle. Lets at least be honest with ourselves, if not the world.

I end with this quote that focuses on a positive attitude towards food. The attitude that I choose to embrace:

“Food, in the end, in our own tradition, is something holy. It’s not about nutrients and calories. It’s about sharing. It’s about honesty.

It’s about identity.”

Louise Fresco