At Freybe, we use only the best cuts and finest spices, smoking our products with imported beech wood to craft the most flavorful deli meats, specialty meats, cured meats and sausages. Naturally low in carbohydrates, all of our products are gluten free (with the exception of British Bangers) and lactose free (with the exception of Cheese Smokies and Parmesano Salami), with no liquid smoke, added MSG, mechanically separated meat or fillers – making them healthy choices for your dinner table.

“Understanding non-meat ingredients”

Sodium Nitrite
Sodium Nitrite is a naturally occurring substance found all around us: in the water, vegetables, soil and even the air. During the cooking process, a natural chemical reaction occurs, breaking down the Nitrate into a Nitrite. It is the Sodium Nitrite that is necessary to prevent the development of botulism as well as allowing the nice pink color of the meat to come forward. If Sodium Nitrite were not used, the meat would appear to be a very pale gray.

Sodium Erythorbate and Sodium Ascorbate
Sodium Erythorbate is similar to Sodium Ascorbate (better known as Vitamin C). It’s usage is specified by law in any product containing Sodium Nitrite, as it will bind with any residual nitrite that was not broken down during the curing process.

Dextrose
Where Sodium Nitrite works to develop the nice pink color of the meat, dextrose (a sugar) is used to stabilize the color.

Sodium Phosphate
Phosphates are naturally found in animals, and are broken down during processing. We add Sodium Phosphate back into the meat, so the natural meat proteins are released. This ensures a good bind, which prevents the product from falling apart.

Water/Ice
Water/Ice is a necessity in producing high quality meat products. This is due to a variety of reasons, with the most significant being that during the cooking process it will “make up” the moisture that is lost during the cooking/baking process. If we did not inject water into the product beforehand, then the product would end up being too dry for the palate.

Lactic Acid Starter Cultures
For use in salami, dry cured hams, and some pepperoni: uncooked product relies on the fermentation process (similar to that of wine) to develop its flavor profile and ensure product stability.

The best way to understand the role that Starter Cultures plays is to compare it to the yeast used in the making of wine. Here yeast is added to the crushed grapes to enable fermentation to take place. It feeds off of the natural sugar in the grapes to turn the grape juice into wine. With salami, the starter culture binds with the sugars (Glucose and Corn Syrup) and helps to develop the aromatic smell and light tangy rich taste of the product.

Smoke
We use only imported hardwood chips (Beech wood) to smoke all of our products. Due to labeling restrictions, we must write ‘smoke’ as opposed to ‘smoked’, but rest assured, we do not use liquid smoke.