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Meat from Germany

Teewurst / Rügenwalder TeewurstTeewurst

Teewurst is a spreadable raw sausage of finely cut pork, sometimes with beef, cured and stuffed into casing, then ripened only briefly; many are also cold-smoked. It is reddened by curing but barely dried, so it stays soft and is not meant for long keeping.

Fully documentedMeat2 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe German food code fixes the meat types and minimum protein levels but not the salt amounts.
Pork low in fat and sinew, coarsely defatted pork, lean beefRindswurst uses only lean beef and fat[leitsaetze]
Fatty tissueFat released from the cut fat coats the meat and makes it spreadable[leitsaetze]
Nitrite curing salt[mueller2016]
StarterIn a 2019 lab study of teewurst, the control batches carried Lactobacillus sakei TMW 1.2037, and test batches carried exopolysaccharide-forming strains (L. plantarum TMW 1.1478, L. sakei TMW 1.411 or L. curvatus TMW 1.1928).

Total time across the recorded steps: 2 days

Start
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What changes: Meat and fat are cut fine with nitrite curing salt

Step 1 of 4
Cut the meat and fat fine, with curing salt
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Lactobacillus curvatus

Fine teewurst is cut very fine; grobe Teewurst is coarse-grained. Output: fine or coarse sausage paste.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

nitrite with the falling pH holds back Listeria

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Teewurst is a spreadable raw sausage of finely cut pork, sometimes with beef, cured and stuffed into casing, then ripened only briefly; many are also cold-smoked. It is reddened by curing but barely dried, so it stays soft and is not meant for long keeping. Made in 4 steps over 2 days. The longest step, ripen briefly, takes 2 days (Hulánková R 2025). Lactobacillus curvatus does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step2 daysReported[hulankova2025]Ripen briefly
AciditypH 5.3–5.5Reported[austin2013]Ripen briefly

What makes this one different

Teewurst is a spreadable raw sausage, so unlike salami it is only slightly dried. The German food code requires at least 10 % connective-tissue-free meat protein in fine teewurst and 11 % in coarse teewurst.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Teewurst Rügenwalder ArtNamed in the German food code; recipes vary by maker.
  • Grobe TeewurstCoarse-grained; at least 11 % connective-tissue-free meat protein.
  • RindswurstOnly lean beef and fat.

Safety

Teewurst is eaten raw with a pH around 5.3–5.5 and high water activity, so the main hurdles are nitrite and acidity. There is no cooking step. In a challenge test with added strains, STEC O26:H11 fell by only 0.5 log in 28 days in teewurst, against 2.2–2.6 log in salami, and the authors say it might pose a public health risk. In another challenge test, E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella Typhimurium and L. monocytogenes added at about 5 log CFU/g fell by 2.2–3.8 log over 30 days in the batter, and the authors say teewurst does not favour their survival. A third study found that nitrite inhibited the growth and survival of added L. monocytogenes in spreadable raw sausage, and that in lab cultures it could not multiply at pH 6.0 and below with 200 mg/l sodium nitrite. These results show counts falling, not the organisms gone. CDC advises anyone pregnant, aged 65 or older or with a weakened immune system to heat fermented sausage until steaming hot, and it says curing, drying or smoking alone does not reliably kill Trichinella worms in pork.

Hazards the sources name: Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O26:H11 (fell only 0.5 log in 28 days in a challenge test); Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella Typhimurium, E. coli O157:H7 (added in challenge tests; fell 2.2–3.8 log over 30 days in the batter); Yersinia pseudotuberculosis (survived 2-day ripening in a challenge test).

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

The sausage is tied to Rügenwalde in Pomerania (now Darłowo, Poland). The German food code lists "Teewurst, Rügenwalder Art" among spreadable raw sausages.

  1. [leitsaetze] Deutsche Lebensmittelbuch-Kommission 2022 (amended 2024), Leitsätze für Fleisch und Fleischerzeugnisse, sections 1.3.2.1 and 2.4.1.2.1, published by the German federal ministrygov
  2. [austin2013] Austin-Watson C., Grant A., Brice M. 2013, Suppression of Listeria monocytogenes by the native micro-flora in teewurst sausage, Foods 2(4):478–487paper
  3. [boehnlein2017] Böhnlein C. et al. 2017, Persistence and reduction of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli serotype O26:H11 in different types of raw fermented sausages, International Journal of Food Microbiology 261:82–88 (abstract)paper
  4. [dourou2009] Dourou D. et al. 2009, Behavior of Escherichia coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes, and Salmonella Typhimurium in teewurst, a raw spreadable sausage, International Journal of Food Microbiology 130:245–250 (abstract)paper
  5. [hulankova2025] Hulánková R., Svobodová I. 2025, The fate of Yersinia pseudotuberculosis in raw fermented meat products, Applied Sciences 15(10):5324 (abstract)paper
  6. [mueller2016] Müller-Herbst S. et al. 2016, Acidified nitrite inhibits proliferation of Listeria monocytogenes, International Journal of Food Microbiology 226:33–41 (abstract)paper
  7. [hilbig2019] Hilbig J., Gisder J., Prechtl R.M., Herrmann K., Weiss J., Loeffler M. 2019, Influence of exopolysaccharide-producing lactic acid bacteria on the spreadability of fat-reduced raw fermented sausages (Teewurst), Food Hydrocolloids 93:422–431 (abstract)paper
  8. [wp-de] German Wikipedia, Teewurst (outline only)wiki
  9. [cdc-listeria] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Preventing Listeria Infectiongov
  10. [cdc-trichinella] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, How to Prevent Trichinellosisgov