More Food Safety at Christmas Markets

Who doesn’t enjoy spend­ing a con­ge­nial evening togeth­er with friends, col­leagues or the fam­i­ly at a Christ­mas mar­ket? Not only do Christ­mas mar­kets have a very spe­cial atmos­phere with their illu­mi­nat­ed stands, the scent of burnt almonds and mulled wine booths, they are also a long-stand­ing tra­di­tion in Ger­man-speak­ing coun­tries. As long ago as the 14th cen­tu­ry, toy mak­ers, bas­ket weavers and con­fec­tion­ers were per­mit­ted to offer the small items for sale at mar­kets dur­ing the Advent peri­od that chil­dren were giv­en for Christ­mas; roast­ed chest­nuts and oth­er nuts includ­ing almonds were also said to have been sold. Today, the mar­kets are a firm fix­ture in the run-up to Christ­mas, and the 1,500 large and around 1,000 small­er Christ­mas mar­kets in Ger­many attract more than 85 mil­lion vis­i­tors a year, accord­ing to the Deutsch­er Schausteller­bund e.V., the orga­ni­za­tion rep­re­sent­ing the mar­ket traders. In addi­tion, Ger­man-style Christ­mas mar­kets also take place in many oth­er coun­tries around the world. For instance, a “Christkindl­mar­ket” based on the tra­di­tion­al Nurem­berg mar­ket has been held in Chica­go since 1996, while the Frank­furt Christ­mas mar­ket has run a UK off­shoot since 2001 in Birm­ing­ham that pulls in almost six mil­lion vis­i­tors every year. Euro­pean-style Christ­mas mar­kets have even estab­lished a foothold in Chi­na. The most authen­tic Christ­mas mar­ket can be found in Shang­hai, where the vis­i­tors can enjoy, among oth­er things, Ger­man lebkuchen (spiced bis­cuits), Ger­man bratwurst (fried sausages) and, of course, glüh­wein (mulled wine). After all, what would a vis­it to a Christ­mas mar­ket be with­out mulled wine?

Cloves, cinnamon and citrus fruit

In Ger­many, the Christ­mas mar­ket world cham­pi­on, mar­ket researchers esti­mate that some 50 mil­lion liters of mulled wine are drunk each year. Much of this pop­u­lar win­ter drink is deliv­ered via whole­salers to the Christ­mas mar­kets in huge bar­rels, each hold­ing up to 1.000 liters. Hoses are an essen­tial flex­i­ble trans­port link to trans­fer the wine into the bar­rels. Very strict reg­u­la­tions and hygiene spec­i­fi­ca­tions are in place to pre­vent the con­tents from being con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed. High-qual­i­ty mate­ri­als, extrud­ed inner lin­ings for a longer ser­vice life and com­pre­hen­sive qual­i­ty con­trols ensure that Con­ti­nen­tal bev­er­age hoses are safe, durable equip­ment. They meet all the statu­to­ry reg­u­la­tions and hygiene require­ments applic­a­ble to food and bev­er­age hoses. They are easy to clean and dis­in­fect. Their homo­ge­neous white inner lin­ing is odor and taste-neu­tral, which means the spe­cial spiced aro­mas of the mulled wine are not impaired.

Mobile drinking water supply for hygienically clean mulled wine mugs

Mulled wine mugs with win­ter motifs are very typ­i­cal­ly avail­able at Christ­mas mar­kets. For some Christ­mas mar­ket vis­i­tors they are very pop­u­lar as sou­venirs, so not every mug finds its way back to the booth. Cold or hot drink­ing water has to be avail­able at the mar­ket booths so that the mugs – as required by food hygiene reg­u­la­tions for glass­es, cut­lery and oth­er equip­ment – can be thor­ough­ly washed. The hoses used to deliv­er water must be approved for car­ry­ing drink­ing water and must be cor­re­spond­ing­ly marked. They must also be undam­aged. The Aqua­pal hose from Con­ti­nen­tal has been test­ed by accred­it­ed insti­tutes and is one of the very few hoses on the mar­ket that is also approved for car­ry­ing drink­ing water in accor­dance with the new ver­sion of the Drink­ing Water Reg­u­la­tions. The excel­lent flex­i­bil­i­ty across a broad tem­per­a­ture range and a weath­er­proof out­er rub­ber lin­ing that is resis­tant to oils and fats make it an ide­al drink­ing water hose for almost every appli­ca­tion – includ­ing outdoors.