Would you, should you eat a budget sausage?

Given that it’s British Sausage Week and Bonfire Night tonight you’d expect a few offers on sausages this week but few can be as cheap as the 88p that Tesco is charging for its discount brand Tulip.

Curious to see what you get for an 11p sausage I bought a pack of eight. According to the ingredients just 56% of the sausage is pork (compared to about 70-80% for mid-range sausages and 85% plus for premium ranges). The rest is accounted for by pork rind, and pork fat, water and rusk together with a whole load of additives including stablisers which are presumably needed to keep the whole soggy mixture together.

There’s a fair amount of salt (1.2g per 100g) plus a surprising amount of sugar (4.2g per 100g)which presumably accounted for the fact they browned so easily (see picture). Two sausages alone would account for over a third of the recommended 3g daily salt intake for a 4-6 year old.

When I fried them an alarming amount of fat also leached out of them - I spooned off about 7 tablespoons, but it has to be said the flavour wasn’t at all bad. They were a bit pappy and soft but I’ve eaten a lot worse in my time. You can see why they would appeal to a family on a really tight budget (not to mention the students who patronise that particular Tesco store).

I don’t know whether to feel pleased or sorry that they are not made from British pork but ‘EU’ pork which could come from anywhere from Holland to Romania. I doubt if British farmers could afford to do them for that price but given the financial plight they’re in I’m sorry that Tesco is willing to undercut them in this way. I'm pretty sure the 11p sausage doesn’t pay for fair wages or high standards of animal welfare.