Discover Germany’s Historic Sausage Purity Laws | The Wurst Laws Explained 🇩🇪📜 (Ryyan Joye- Adobe Stock)
German food purity laws began in the Middle Ages, most famously with health and safety rules for beer in 1516. The “Reinheitsgebot” was enacted to ensure brewers were only using certain ingredients to create their beer; important for a daily food product that sustained much of the population.
However, many people don’t realize that there is a regional purity law for wurst that is older than the Reinheitsgebot. A 1432 law established the rules for creating the Thüringer Rostbratwurst in the city of Weimar.
The modern descendent of these laws is the German Food Code (Deutsches Lebensmittelbuch). Put together and updated regularly this food code provides guidance from specialty committees on how food products should be made in Germany. It includes details for thousands of foods, from ice cream to shrimp, bread, soft drinks, honey and mushrooms.
While it is not a legally binding list, the food code is essentially a declaration of what is expected by consumers in Germany. The code for meats and meat products is an 84-page document that defines numerous types of meat products, including wurst:
“Wurst are certain sliceable or spreadable mixtures made from minced meat, fatty tissue and, depending on the type, sometimes also offal, prepared using flavoring and/or technologically based ingredients. (translated)”
In the code, there are 43 pages of ‘special assessment criteria’ for different types of wurst, meaning that the wurst recommendations make up half of the country’s guidelines for meat.
Germany’s Iconic Wurst: Regional Sausages & Their Protected Origins 🇩🇪🌭 (Ryyan Joye - Adobe Stock)
There are 12 wurst with an extra special EU regulatory protection status that ensures that their name, traditional creation and ingredients come from a certain geographical area. These wurst will have a blue and yellow Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) label on them.
For example, a blood sausage with bacon added may only be called a Flönz if it is made in certain parts of North Rhine-Westphalia. Nearby, the Aachener Weihnachts-Leberwurst and the Aachener Puttes may only be made by butchers in Aachen.
In Saxony, both the Göttinger Stracke and Feldkieker must come from Göttingen, and jars of Halberstädter Würstchen are special to the town of Halberstädt.
Traditional German Jarred Wurst | A Taste of Preserved Sausage Heritage 🇩🇪🥩 ( JackF - Adobe Stock)
The state of Thüringia has a strong history of special wurst. The spreadable pork Thüringer Leberwurst and Thüringer Rotwurst blood sausage must have ingredients from the state, while spicy Greußener Salami is only from the small town of Greußen. One of the oldest protected sausages is the Thüringer Rostbratwurst. The 600-year-old receipe calls for minced pork seasoned with marjoram, caraway and garlic that are stuffed into a pig or sheep intestine.
Not to be outdone, the Bavarian state has its fair share of special wurst. First is the Hofer Rindfleischwurst, a spreadable beef sausage from the town of Hof. But the highlight of Bavarian PGI foods is the Nürnberger Rostbratwurst, which has the oldest known German wurst recipe at over 700-years-old. A favorite brat for festivals like Oktoberfest, this wurst is only authentically made by butchers in Nürnberg (Nuremberg).
Authentic German Bratwurst with Sauerkraut & Mustard 🌭🇩🇪 (Herlita - Adobe Stock)
