kidneys

As leading South African meat wholesalers, we are used to dealing with all parts of the animal from head to toe, but if you mention the words affal, offal or tripe and trotters, the world suddenly seems instantly divided – people either love it or shudder at the thought.

Yes, we know it’s not the holidays just yet, but now’s the time to start stocking up, because you don’t want to be caught in the Christmas madness that ensues later in December, do you? While roast turkey might once have been the traditional choice for Christmas dinner, it has steadily been surpassed by lamb and it’s easy to see why lamb is far more versatile depending on the cut of meat you choose and definitely more forgiving when it comes to succulence and tenderness.

I’ll bet you didn’t know today is Tripe Day did you? It would seem that all food types now have their celebrated day in the sun which is actually a good thing as it exposes us to obscure foods we don’t usually eat or know too much about – take Idli (an Indian savoury rice cake) celebrated in March for example. But with us, tripe needs no introduction – it’s a firm favourite in the wholesale meat South Africa industry and leading supplier, N1, specialise in ox tripe.

The most common types of organ meat, also referred to as affal, include the liver, tongue, heart, kidneys, brain and tripe. Once a prized meat, it’s fallen slightly out of favour over the years, which is unfortunate considering how nutritious organ meats actually are. For example, did you know they are an excellent source of vitamin D? Called the ‘sunshine vitamin’ because our bodies can create vitamin D when exposed to the sun, we tend to think that because we live in a warm country we should have no issues with our vitamin D levels, right? Wrong.