Meat products – definition, main groups and quality requirements: a review

The EU legislation gives an extremely general definition of the term “meat products”. The national legislation of the individual member states specifies meat product groups and requirements for the raw materials used and the final products in more detail. In Central Europe, such regulatory system is particularly well defined in Austria. Meat products in Austria are classified into three basic quality classes, each containing specific products, basic raw material compositions and selected physical-chemical requirements of the final products. The German system is not as detailed, though it does formulate requirements for meat and smoked meat products better than the current Czech Decree no 326/2001.