Shanghai – Plenty of stories have appeared around the outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF) in recent months, so you may be wondering whether it is safe and healthy to eat pork.
As the name suggests, African Swine Flu is derived from Africa and may have been around since the early 19th century. The virus first spread to the Middle East then to the Europe and now since recently only China. While African Swine Flu is thought not to be dangerous to humans, it might just be better to stay away from the virus all together.
Extremely strict controls need to be in place at pig farms to ensure that nothing enters the farm that may have traces of the AFS virus. This includes the feed what is given to the pigs and that is believed to be the key source of the rapid spreading of the disease in many parts of the world.
Image via Swiss Butchery
How do you know which pork is safe to eat?
There are several relevant questions you can ask your butcher to feel confident eating safe pork.
- Ask about the origin of the pork.
- Ask if their pork is 100% certified, registered all natural fed, and antibiotic-free.
- Ask if their pig farm has strict hygiene controls in place to ensure African Swine Fever has no chance to enter the farm.
- Ask if there is testing in place to check traces of antibiotics.
At Swiss Butchery, they can provide you a detailed and positive answer to all these questions.
Swiss Butchery, who recently won TimeOut's 'Shop of the Year 2018' award by public voting, is known to put food safety and hygiene as their number one priority. We asked them how to deal with the AFS virus when it comes to ensuring safe pork to their customers.
"We accept nothing but the very highest standards in all we do", says Alexander, founder and general manager of Swiss Butchery." This means we will not make any concessions providing safe products of the highest quality.
For all our pork, we carefully selected 'Scandinavian Farms', which is located in Jiangsu province and 100% owned by Danish investors and the Danish Government. All their breeding is done from imported Danish pigs compliant with Danish standards in food safety and hygiene. Denmark is globally known as having some of the most advanced pork breeding techniques, including insemination, food intake, and medical care.
Image via Swiss Butechery
At 'Scandinavian Farms', antibiotics are strictly regulated. Unlike many other farms, the use of antibiotics is a need only basis in case a certain pig suffers from a bacterial infection, and medicine intake is individually tracked. Critically important, those pigs exposed to antibiotics have a strict 30 days withholding period before being ready for production.
These strict controls ensure that we can offer our customers safe Danish originated pork that is completely free from any form of antibiotics and African Swine Flu (AFS) traces.
What also makes them a great supplier is that their pork is being derived from a crossbreed of Duroc, Landraise and Yorkshire, which delivers some of the tastiest and leanest pork that can be found almost anywhere in the world.
Combined with our cold supply chain expertise we can offer our clients fresh as opposed to frozen Danish originated pork, completely safe and of the very highest quality.
Image via Swiss Butchery
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[Cover image via Swiss Butchery]
About Swiss Butchery
Swiss Butchery aims to bring a world-class quality meat experience offering a wide variety of high-quality fresh meats. From freshly never frozen Australian beef to homemade specialties like sausages, hams, pâtés, and imported delicacies like Italian hams, European cheeses, and fine seafood. All our products are treated under the most stringent food safety and hygiene standards. Swiss Butchery currently operates three stores in 3187 Hongmei lu in Hongqiao, 262 Baihua lu in Jinqiao, and 86 Wulumuqi lu near Anfu lu in Xuhui. Online our customers can find almost our entire assortment in a wide range of cuts and portions, vacuum and chilled packed for delivery the next day.
