Made in luxury meat – a disgusting find at a traditional Frankfurt butcher | hessenschau.de
Entire saddles of beef full of maggots, mouse infestation and unsanitary conditions: food inspectors have discovered vermin in fine meat in a well-known Frankfurt butcher’s shop. The owner responds to the allegations.
The city of Frankfurt announced on Thursday that there were “images that are not commonplace even for seasoned employees”. The day before, when inspecting a butcher shop in the west of the city, food inspectors discovered countless maggots in dry-aged beef. The extent of the disgust can be guessed at from the photos published by the public order office: the fly larvae are clearly visible in the dissected saddle of cattle.
The hung meat is actually considered a special delicacy. According to the city, the kilo price for the noble dry-aged beef is 40 euros and more. According to hr information, the company in question is a well-known traditional butcher’s shop in the Höchst district.
Closure due to “unsanitary conditions and mouse infestation”
“Of course, that’s very unfortunate for us,” said owner Thomas Reichert when asked. The master butcher, who is also the head of the Frankfurt-Darmstadt-Offenbach butchers’ guild, blames gaps in the cold chain during transport for the vermin infestation. “Unfortunately, you can never rule that out,” said Reichert. From the outside it was not visible to the meat.
But it wasn’t the first fund in the butcher’s shop. As early as June 29, during a scheduled inspection, the control had found apparently spoiled dry-aged roast beef, as the city announced on Thursday. The affected saddle of beef intended for sale did not appear safe “and definitely not suitable for consumption”. The luxury meat was secured. In addition, the office ordered the butcher’s shop to be temporarily closed “due to general unhygienic conditions and mouse infestation”.
At the follow-up inspection two days later, on July 1, the company was able to reopen “after the hygienic deficiencies and the mouse infestation had been rectified”. The dry-aged beef for sale was examined again. This revealed an acute infestation with fly larvae in the back of the cattle. A total of 39 sirloins were secured and samples taken.
18,000 euros expensive meat disposed of
This was examined by the Hessian state laboratory. The bean status of the food inspectors finally meant that the company had to be checked again – on Wednesday. In the presence of owner Thomas Reichert, ten of the secured backs of cattle were opened and a significant number of larvae were found.
“We then immediately decided that we had to remove the entire load,” said Reichert. The 38 remaining and already secured saddles of beef, a total of around 800 kilograms of meat, were disposed of at the butcher’s expense. The butcher estimated the pure meat costs at around 18,000 euros.
No meat sold
Administrative offense proceedings were also initiated against the operator. The mere determination of the meat that is not edible and marketable is not sufficient for an official closure of the company, “since the hygienic conditions in the company were otherwise free of objections,” as the city’s statement states.
There was no danger for consumers because the meat would be secured soon. He can rule out that some of the contaminated meat was sold, Reichert assured. The butcher shop should now be closely monitored.
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