Forssa Maakarit team from left: Carita Nikander, Hanna Saari, Leena Brusin, Teemu Salminen and Mikko Sundholm.

Top professionals prepare the range’s products using their professional artisan skills at HKScan's Finnish production units in Vantaa, Mikkeli and Forssa, the birthplace of Livornon Luigi sausage and other raw sausages in the range.

The Academic Kiuas-Seura in Finland not only chose HK Maakarit® Livornon Luigi as the best raw sausage in 2018, but also the best of all sausages in the last tasting season. The association has been tasting sausages since 1991, and this year, 167 different sausages were rated in six different categories.

The winning sausage belongs to HKScan's Finnish brand HK Maakarit® product range. The products in the range are delicious artisan sausages and meat balls, carefully prepared for the demanding consumer. The raw materials used for these sausages are of the highest quality, but much of their taste is to do with the preparation process, requiring strong professional skills.

The team is proud of their achievement, and for good reason

HKScan’s different units in Finland specialise in producing different types of Maakarit® sausages. Of the ten or so skilled uncooked sausage-makers in the Forssa unit, those present when the news of the Livornon Luigi win came were Leena Brusin, Hanna Saari, Mikko Sundholm and Teemu Salminen, as well as supervisor Carita Nikander. The team is genuinely happy and proud of their achievement, and for good reason!

"It’s great to be recognised for our achievement when so much work has been done in creating something new. Everyone tells us how much they appreciate the added variety that the production of uncooked sausages has brought to Forssa’s normal production. This is quite different from what we have ever done in Forssa before”, says Leena Brusin, who was among the first to learn how to make uncooked sausages at the Vantaa factory.

According to the team, keeping an open mind was crucial in learning step by step how to manufacture a new type of product. The team is unanimously grateful to Vantaa’s skilled meat manufacturers for their fruitful cooperation and helpfulness helping the Forssa team get things up and running and learn the finer points of the art of making uncooked sausages.

Forssa is also a particularly suitable place for producing raw sausages because their main ingredient, Rypsiporsas® pork, is available from the same production unit. The Rypsiporsas® pigs, fed with grain, peas, broad beans and rapeseed from nearby fields, are reared without antibiotics. This gives the raw sausages their particularly delicious taste and just the right texture. This product exemplifies the professional skills of HKScan employees and the cooperation in the entire value chain from farm to fork.

“We have a great team working here, things run smoothly and we enjoy what we do. We are really proud of these sausages. They’re genuinely handmade by us”, says Brusin.

The name Maakarit comes from the Swedish word makare, meaning “master”. According to category manager Ida Kohtamäki, this is a tribute to HKScan’s sausage-makers and to the company’s history of sausage production.

“We have had great successes, which tells us we’re on the right track”, Kohtamäki adds. “They inspire us to continue our work to provide consumers with delicious new products.”


Leena Brusin