How Are Children's Sausages Different From The Others?

There is no child who does not love salami. Or rather, let's say sausage, because this column includes the adored sausages, the beloved sausage, the preferred ham, in addition to the various types of salami. If we look at the past, we see images of slices covered with "soft" sausages, which have become common for breakfast before school or carefully prepared by a parent in a school bag, on a trip or a short hike in the mountains.


Now, as a parent, I wonder how useful these sausages were for our body and whether today's sausages are of a different quality. The fact is, however, that children continue to love, seek and insist, sometimes quite heartbreaking, to buy their favorite sausages. There are even moments when we are put in a dead end, because the character of the small child turns out to be stronger and for days refuses to eat anything but the fillet with lyutenitsa and sausages ...


As a person of the present, in which we are overloaded with too much artificial food, caring about what I give my body as a composition, and even more to my child, I remain concerned about whether sausage is really the right food for the child and what is the amount , to which I should limit it. I am worried, like any parent, about the very unnatural way of obtaining and processing our food, but on the other hand I am well aware that I cannot create a sterile environment for products from centuries ago, so I am forced to adhere to reasonable balance and looking for food that does not harm the child and provides him with the necessary nutrients.


I have indiscriminately picked up two sausages and focused on the notorious E's trying to find out if they would harm my child's health if I made him breakfast.


If the child is older, the content of several E's in one product, with an established Stara Planina quality standard, in the amount of one hundred grams per day, would hardly harm him, but I cannot ignore the fact that during at school he will not take a slice of pizza from the opposite pavilion, which again has sausage. Quite a separate and not to be underestimated is the issue of young children, who after a year and a half already consume adult food and become participants in family meals, where we often put dishes with sausages, and of course, not only reach for them, but also we ourselves give them ...


I read on the label of one of the products I brought that in addition to 100% meat, it included: nitrite salt, sodium ascorbate as an antioxidant, stabilizer, sugar and spices. On the other product I find as additives salt, spices, E 331, E450, E250.


I have explicitly downloaded Ordinance №8 on the requirements for the use of food additives by the Ministry of Health and I am checking whether these additives are permissible under our legislation for consumption by young children.


After checking four tables in Annex 3, I find that E 331 is permissible for use in infant formulas and follow-on formulas, the first two sections for the youngest infants being 2 g / l, while in section B for the permissible additives in infants and young children the amount is no longer specified.


E 331 refers to sodium citrates, whether mono-, di- or trisodium citrate.


After the tables and the many numbers, I don't come across E 450 and I start to wonder if there is no easier way to control the permissible and inadmissible E's and their quantities in the sausages that my child consumes? Can't their quantity be measured by the producer himself, as it is compliant at least according to the regulations for permissible for the child's body, because at least I can't hide the sausage from its table at all, especially when he loves it and doesn't want to eat the tasteless boiled piece of meat?


 

 

Children's sausages
The labels of children's sausages indicate that they are made from clean and fresh meat, such as chicken or tender pork, which do not burden the body with excess fat. For example, vegetables such as carrots can be added to them for better taste and usefulness of the product and milk. The addition of milk to the meat mixture aims to enrich the content of the sausage with calcium, which the body of children in conditions of rapid growth strongly needs. It turns out that the sausages are supplemented with vitamins from the antioxidant complex - vitamins A, C and E. At the same time, children's sausages do not contain gluten, to which some children are allergic, soy and dyes.


The nutrients of children's sausages, ham or salami are strictly measured by specialists from the Bulgarian Pediatric Association. Their supervision of additives is even stricter. It is mandatory that the amount of salt in these sausages is limited.


The production of sausages cannot exclude the inclusion of certain additives. According to Bulgarian and European regulations, for example, the amount of monosodium glutamate or E 621 as a flavoring can be added to food, but not more than 10 g per kilogram of finished product.


Monosodium glutamate is the sodium salt of glutamic acid (E 620), which by the way is one of the twenty essential amino acids for the human body. Glutamic acid is found in all types of protein, but mostly in meat.


When meat is cooked in salt, glutamic acid is naturally released from meat proteins. It in turn makes a compound with sodium chloride, which forms sodium glutamate. This means that it can be contained in the meat product even though it is not included as an additive.


However, the amount of monosodium glutamate in children's sausages is actually limited and seven times lower than permissible in the regulations - it is not 10 g / kg, but 1.5 g / kg.


The preservative used in the production of children's sausages is E 250. It is sodium nitrite. According to Ordinance 8 on the requirements for the use of food additives of the Ministry of Health, the amount of this preservative should not exceed 100 mg per kilogram of finished local product, so as not to harm health. In children's sausages, sodium nitrite is only 10 mg per kilogram.


Consultants from the Bulgarian Pediatric Association participate not only in the preparation of the correct recipe for sausages, but also in their overall preparation, which includes monitoring the entire technological process of production and sanitary conditions.


Children's sausages have a lower salt content, which is due to the limited amount of monosodium glutamate. Children's taste buds are very sensitive, it does not need more salt, and its high values ​​are not healthy. Children's salami is delicious for the child, satisfies his appetite and his desire to consume a certain type of food, in which even the presence of E is measured, as much as to ensure the quality of the product - in reality, the preservatives that we put at home. cooked cobs and other foods are much more.