Sodium content ranged from 410mg per 100g to 868mg. Fat-free meat flesh is broadly defined as ''the skeletal muscle of any slaughtered animal, which can include any attached animal rind, fat and connective nerve, blood, blood vessels and, in the case of poultry, the skin''. Only the Woolworths, Aldi and Coles sausages had nutrition labels and ingredients lists. For consumers concerned about undisclosed offal; despite the usual myths about eyes and innards, your sausage is most likely offal-free. The manufacturer of the same organic sausages displayed the logo of an accredited certifier, Australian Organic, on its website, despite the sausages not being certified at all. The more fat in your pan, the less fat you end up eating.” Don’t pierce a sausage in the pan, as all the juices and flavour will leak out, and always cook over a medium heat or the sausage skin may split. These artificial casings are cheaper and come in convenient, uniform sizes. beef organic sausages from an independent butchery. We looked at more than 50 supermarket sausages and found fat content ranging from 3.8g (1.4g sat fat) to 18.4g (9.1g sat fat) per 100g. All sausages complied with FSANZ regulations, although with the minimum level of lean meat required to be 50g per 100g, the gourmet (56.8g) and Woolworths (58.7g) sausages had the lowest proportion. A sausage that releases no fat when you cook it can mean it has too many binders, and this can mean all the fat is held in the sausage. We found that Peppercorn Extra Lean Chicken Sausages fit the bill for a healthier snag, with 90% chicken, 8g fat (3g sat) and 450mg sodium per 100g. Meanwhile, Riverine Beef Sausages with Feta had 78% beef, 8.2g fat and 640mg sodium per sausage. It is also a key ingredient for Nigella's Mini Meatloaves (from NIGELLA EXPRESS). Breakfast sausages are often cheaper because they’re made with lower-quality cuts of meat, or a combination of different meat off-cuts. Although FSANZ sets regulations around sausages, it's the state and territory agencies that enforce the standards. When you cook it, the skin shouldn’t shrink and peel away. The system isn't fool-proof and regulations vary in each state. A little water is required to bind the meat and fillers, but more might be used to add bulk to mass-produced sausages which are sold by weight. Least favourite: Coles Country Style Beef Sausages – “fatty, tough, processed”. There are currently 14 non-compliant butchers on the NSW Food Authority name-and-shame list for excessive sulphites in sausages. There are two types of sausage casings. It usually binds well and adds moisture while cooking, hence it is used often for stuffings. Most mass-produced or butcher-made sausages use preservatives to inhibit bacteria growth and delay the grey-brown oxidisation of meat. CHOICE supports the First Nations people's Uluru Statement from the Heart. Finely ground, dense sausages could also be hiding poor-quality meat, an excess of binders, or more water than is necessary. Personally, I would be hesitant to use purchased ground meat for two … We hosted a sausage sizzle in the CHOICE kitchen and 11 hungry staff members did an informal blind taste test of the six sausage varieties. “Don’t be scared of a little fat in the pan when you cook the sausage. Hi, I'm a huge fan of Nigella here down and under in Sydney. What is the common mixture in sausage meat? For example, in order to work out the lean meat content of Welsh Dragon sausages, you'd firstly have to look at whether there is any other ingredient containing fat in the ingredients list. The independent was judged as the fattiest, which was correct, but the organic was voted second-fattiest, although it actually had the lowest fat level of all the sausages. We at CHOICE acknowledge the Gadigal people, the traditional custodians of this land on which we work, and pay our respects to the First Nations people of this country. In each state, we spoke to butchers who said council inspectors visit their premises randomly every three to six months, although a wholesaler in Tasmania said she sent her own samples for testing rather than having random audits.