John Myers
Both fresh and frozen poultry meat must meet special regulations in order to be sold in Germany. The law prescribes the precise temperature at which poultry meat must be stored before it reaches the consumer. Immediately after slaughtering, fresh meat must be stored at a temperature between minus one and plus four degrees Celsius and be given a use-by date.
Poultry meat that is sold frozen, on the other hand, has to be chilled to a core temperature of minus twelve degrees Celsius immediately after slaughter using a shock-freezing process. Short-term storage at a maximum temperature of three degrees Celsius is permitted for frozen poultry meat.
However, frozen poultry meat should not be confused with deep-frozen meat. This is continuously cooled to below minus 18 degrees Celsius from slaughter to sale to the end consumer. If this limit is exceeded, it can no longer be declared as “deep frozen”, but still as frozen goods. As a rule, frozen goods are only offered if the cold chain from the butcher to the meat counter cannot be maintained at the temperature level of deep-frozen goods.
