The grilling season continues to be advertised in stores with cheap meat. This is the summary of the environmental protection organization WWF according to its current one “Grilled meat check”for which the leaflets from the large supermarket chains were evaluated. Of a total of 325 grilled meat products advertised, around a third came from the Abroad or did not have an Austrian designation of origin, it said in a broadcast on Friday.
At the same time, 95 percent of the offers come from conventional productiononly five percent are organic products. “Regional organic products and plant-based alternatives, on the other hand, hardly play a role. This sends the wrong signals in times of climate and biodiversity crisis,” criticized Dominik Heizmann from the WWF.
A “model example” was used imported grill-ready chicken called, which was available for 2.99 euros per kilogram. “Austrian agriculture, animal welfare and the environmental consequences inevitably fall by the wayside.”
Missing plant-based alternatives
The WWF also missed plant-based meat alternatives: “Of a total of 334 grilled products analyzed in the leaflets, only nine contained such offers, which corresponds to around three percent.” The WWF was particularly critical of the incomplete labeling of origin and husbandry for many grilled products. Especially with processed products such as sausages, there is often no traceable indication of origin. These gaps in labeling are no longer up to date,” said Heizmann.
For the analysis, the WWF evaluated the leaflets from Billa, Billa Plus, Spar, Lidl, Penny and Hofer in the period May 18 to 31, 2026.
As a consequence of the check, the NGO called on Agriculture Minister Norbert Totschnig (ÖVP) to implement mandatory and complete labeling of origin and husbandry for all meat products. In addition, retailers should gradually remove imported meat with low environmental standards from their range and expand their range of regional organic products and plant-based alternatives.