Herta Low fat Liver sausage – Tasty and Healthy

A liver sausage that is healthier and tasty: manufacturer Herta was challenged and put his product technologists to work. The result is Herta low fat liver sausage with 40% less calories and 50% less fat and saturated fat. ‘Tasty and healthy’ is the appropriate name for this new product.

Dutch people eat a lot of sliced meats. On average they consume 8,6 kg of sliced meats per year, of which sausages are most popular. However sausage is a type of product that contains a lot of saturated fats and calories. This is due to the origin of the raw material (meat) that contains a lot of saturated fats.

“Herta feels its important to offer a healthier alternative”, according to Jos Kuppen, Key account director at Herta. “Especially when one realises that healthier products will help to stay fit. Therefore Herta is looking for better recipes for the products that will of course offer the same taste experience. Liver sausage is one of the first products that we have improved.”

Meatless inside

The answer to the queeste was delivered through Meatless. Meatless is a meat replacer made from vegetable wheat proteins that has the same structure as meat. Meatless make the product look and taste like meat and gives it a smooth mouthfeel. This is very important in the case of liver sausage. It contains few calories (70 kcal/100g) and less than 1% fat (of which 75% is unsaturated).

In using Meatless the low fat liver sausage contains less calories and (saturated) fat than for instance a traditional liver sausage (table 1). In order to optimize the structure and taste, Herta spent over one and a half year in testing the product. This lead to a specific combination of processing techniques and ingredients that proved to be the answer.

In the future, more of such innovations lie ahead. “When this product becomes a success in the market than Herta will start improving more products”.

Core points:

• Herta Low fat liver sausage is a healthy alternative for traditional liver sausage and tastes as good as the original
• It contains 40% less calories and 50% less fat and saturated fat
• The usage of Meatless as an ingredient gives good results