Lake Geneva Country Meats was thrilled to be awarded 11 medals and the Cup of Honor by the German Butchers’ Association this year. To accept the awards, Nick and Scott Vorpagel flew to Frankfurt, Germany to attend the once every three years IFFA meat industry trade fair. Over 63,000 visitors from 143 countries attended the fair held in 4 massive exhibition halls at the Messe Frankfurt complex. New technologies, product judging and opportunities to connect with butchers from around the world were presented at this show, as well as an opportunity to enjoy German hospitality. Take a look at some of the pictures from this amazing experience!
The IFFA Trade Fair
It is hard to explain the scale of this trade fair. There were over 1,000 exhibitors showcasing everything from 2 story giant robots for breaking down beef carcasses to new spice blends from around the world. Many of the booths were massive in size and featured a full kitchen and bar for the company to entertain guests. Perhaps the most impressive booth was a full reproduction of an Italian pizzeria, complete with stone brick walls that was built in the 2 day set up period!
While we didn’t look at the huge processing robots, we investigated a number of different technologies. We visited our smokehouse manufacturer, Kerres, and, after being offered sausages and beer, we discovered their newest innovations. We feel that one of the biggest factors that help make our quality sausage products are our German smokehouses, and we’re happy to see that they’re coming up with more tricks we can work into our smokehouses! Other highlights included a sausage vending machine. Would you like to see a vending machine outside LGCM filled with brats for when we’re closed but you have a hankering for a wurst?
The highlight of the show (for us, at least) was the International Quality Competition for Sausage Products. Our products had already been judged in America, but judging for the German products was underway while we were there. A huge number of judges in perfectly matching white and red coats carefully evaluated thousands of products and then awarded medals based on scores. We were thrilled to accept 10 Gold Medals, 1 Silver Medal and the Cup of Honor for our overall sausage excellence! Check out the pictures from the IFFA Show:
Discovering Frankfurt
Our hotel was located in the heart of Frankfurt and we were able to walk all over the city discovering the sites and, most importantly, the food and bier! Take a look at some of the German delicacies we enjoyed:
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We had an absolute blast in Frankfurt and were so grateful to the people we met that treated two American tourists with so much kindness! If you ever get the opportunity to travel to Frankfurt, we’d definitely recommend giving it a try. We enjoyed the trip so much, we decided to keep the German fun going with our Summer, 2016 Heritage Sausage promotion. These are four limited edition traditional sausage flavors inspired by the sausages we tried in Germany. Try them all to be declared a LGCM Wurst Meister AND to get a free LGCM Beer Boot! Check out the details by clicking here.
Thanks for reading and see you soon at LGCM for International Award Winning Sausages and more!