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The change applies to products already available on the market and autumn’s new products. Introduced in 2011, the best qualities of HK Rypsiporsas® pork meat, its flavour, tenderness and healthiness, remain unchanged. Rypsiporsas® products contain more soft (unsaturated) fats, particularly Omega 3 fatty acids, than normal pork meat does.
All the contract farms supplying Rypsiporsas® meat have been carefully selected, and they follow a precise feeding programme. The contract farms producing Rypsiporsas® meat are “Laatuvastuu” farms that participate in a national quality certification system related to animal health and product safety.
In addition to domestic grain, the animals are fed rapeseed, which enhances the quality of the meat fat in a natural way. GMO-free feed is possible by replacing the soy protein source in the feed with mainly rapeseed and other domestic sources of protein, such as peas and broad beans.
”Our development project has been guided by the genuine interest consumers have in locally produced food, its healthiness and domestic origin – without compromising on the flavour and tenderness of the meat. The success of the project has required the entre meat chain’s unwavering commitment to the shared goal,” says Samuli Eskola, Executive Vice President of HKScan’s Consumer Business. ”Domestic Rypsiporsas® offers a product that has been produced using feed grown in Finnish fields and with animals raised responsibly. The Laatuvastuu label in Rypsiporsas® packages will tell consumers more clearly than before that the meat production process has been carefully regulated and exceeds statutory requirements and that the safety of the meat’s primary production has been verified,” Eskola adds.
The National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) granted the 2012 public health award to HK Ruokatalo, today HKScan Finland, for the nationally significant promotion of public health in Finland. The award recognizes the work the company has done to reduce the amount of salt and hard (saturated) fats in its products. Thanks to Rypsiporsas® meat, the amount of hard fats on Finnish plates was about 160 000 kilos less than in 2007.
”Changing the composition of the Rypsiporsas® meat raw material through the animal feeding programme is a unique innovation in the world,” says Marketing Manager Mikko Järvinen. ”No other meat company has achieved the same end result in changing the type of fat in pork meat.”
HKScan announced last week that the Group is strongly committed to promoting more responsibly produced soy, and thereby ensuring that the also the entire value chain using soy is environmentally and socially sustainable from the animal feed to the consumers’ plate. With this commitment, the company ensures that by the end of 2018 all soy used in HKScan’s entire meat value chain in all the Group’s domestic markets will meet the strict requirements of the Round Table on Responsible Soy Association.
April 10, 2014 - HKScan
