Cape Town - The government has said that if the sausage on your braai does not contain a minimum total meat content of 90% and a fat content of no more than 30% as well as cereal or starch, vinegar, spices, herbs or salt, food additives, and water, then it isn’t really a boerewors.
Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Minister Thoko Didiza has gazetted new regulations and a particular set of standards to be met if boerewors is to be sold in South Africa.
Minister Didiza’s regulations said that to qualify as boerewors it must be “manufactured from the meat of a domesticated animal of the bovine, ovine, porcine or caprine species”.
These include cows, buffalo, lambs, goats or pigs. Boerewors can also be made from a mixture of two or more of these.
As well as the meat and fat content, the new regulations said that a true boerewors should have no colourants and must be contained in an edible casing. It cannot contain edible or inedible offal, except where such offal is to be used solely as the casing of the raw boerewors.
South African boerewors are not allowed to contain mechanically recovered meat. This is any paste-like meat product produced by forcing puréed or ground meat under high pressure through a sieve or similar device to separate the bone from the edible meat tissue.
Welcoming the regulations, Jan Scannell aka Jan Braai said it was fantastic that the government acknowledged the importance of “National Braai Day on September 24” and that they understood the role boerewors plays in nation building and social cohesion.
“You cannot have the perfect braai on braai day without the perfect boerewors.”
He said his own “Jan Braai Boerewors” went beyond the parameters of the regulations.
“We might look forward to an additional future classification of premium boerewors that matches my own specification of 70% lean beef, 15% pork shoulder and 15% pork belly for extremely high quality boerewors.”
The new regulations were gazetted as Umlazi’s Welcome Magoso was crowned 2022 Championship Boerewors Competition winner at the V&A Waterfront’s Cabo Beach Club on Saturday.
Magoso’s winning recipe will be for sale in Shoprite and Checkers supermarkets nationwide from September 9, just in time for Heritage Day.
Second and third place went to Christiaan Roodt from Cradock, Eastern Cape, and Delano Jasper from Wellington in the Western Cape, respectively. The competition was judged by an independent panel from the South African Chefs Association.
Meanwhile, time is running out for Cape Town’s braai masters to enter the annual Capegate Shopping Centre Braai Challenge, with the top 10 finalists competing for prizes and bragging rights on Saturday, September 17.
Entries for consideration close on Wednesday, August 31.
Braai aficionados looking to be crowned the Capegate Braai Champion and to compete on the day, will need to head over to the Capegate Centre website to complete a digital form.
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za