Baked chips were just one of many meat and poultry snack innovations at Anuga 2017, a biennial fair held in Cologne, Germany that is the world’s largest food exposition for the retail trade and the foodservice and catering markets. These chips came from meat and poultry processors and were on display in the meat hall, which is one of 10 expositions within the overall Anuga show.

At least a dozen companies showcased this new product concept, which can be made by varied techniques. One approach is to very thinly slice sausage made of beef, chicken or pork and bake the slices into chips. These chips can be topically salted and seasoned much like their potato counterpart, or the original sausage carries the flavoring. Another approach is to pulverize meat with other ingredients, namely starchy ingredients, and form the slurry into a chip that gets fried and dried, much like fabricated potato chips in the marketplace. These, too, can be topically or internally seasoned. Depending on process and manufacturer, the chips are anywhere from 35% to 80% protein.

These shelf-stable chips joined other new convenient meat forms, such as crinkle-cut slices of salami in pouches and mini sausages in vacuum-packed cups with a dome lid of ketchup and fork included. Other new concepts included shelf-stable meat bars, with some designed specifically for the nutritional needs of women, as well as grilled and seasoned individual chicken breasts. The latter are intended for the refrigerator. Single units for the convenience channel can be merchandised in display boxes, while five single units come perforated together for supermarkets.

The Anuga meat hall featured more than 900 exhibitors from 50 countries. With its international setting, Anuga Meat is the most comprehensive information and ordering platform worldwide for meat, sausage, game and poultry. It covers the entire spectrum of meat production in its various processing stages. The product range spans from unprocessed meat products, to meat preparations and convenience products, through to fine sausage and ham products and regional specialties. There is no other comparable product show for the meat industry anywhere else in the world.

This 34th Anuga was impressive and a record setter. More than 7,400 companies from 107 countries presented products from all over the world and all categories over the course of five days. Around 165,000 trade visitors from 198 countries took advantage of this unique offer for sourcing, information and ordering at top level.

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