Frequently asked questions

Most of our products are available in supermarkets. If you can't find your favorite product in your local store, don't hesitate to send us a message via the contact page. You can also find our Hénaff Sélection products and our limited series at Hénaff & Co and in fine grocery stores in Brittany.

Hénaff has joined forces with other Breton producers selected for their expertise and the quality of their products, to bring you the very best of Brittany. Hénaff & Co now has 3 stores (Pouldreuzic, Pont-Aven and La Trinité-sur-Mer) and an online boutique www.henaffandco.fr.

Contrary to industry practice, we use all parts of the pig (including noble cuts such as roasts, hams, etc.) to make our pâté, which is therefore lower in fat (23% fat) and higher in protein (17%) than the average. The same goes for our Hénaff sausages, which are 19% fat and 17% protein. We add organic Sao Tomé pepper, Guérande salt and, in the case of Pâté Hénaff, a secret blend of spices.

The "plain" recipe is made without gluten (pork, salt, spices) in special workshops. For derived recipes (spicy, onions, etc.) there may be traces of gluten linked to these added ingredients.

The recipe is gluten-free. However, with the arrival of new products containing gluten and manufactured in the same workshops, we cannot confirm the absence of gluten. For other recipes, there may be traces of gluten linked to these added ingredients.

Sodium nitrite, introduced in the 60s to keep Pâté Hénaff pink after opening, was phased out in the late 2000s. Pâté Hénaff has therefore been free of sodium nitrite (E250) for many years. Hénaff sausages have been preservative- and colorant-free since their creation in 1995, and have never contained sodium nitrite.

We were pioneers when we launched a nitrite-free sausage 25 years ago. For the past 10 years, we have been progressively eliminating nitrite salt from all our recipes, and we are almost at the end of this process: today, 99.2% of our sales are made without nitrite salt. The products that do contain nitrite salt are Hénaff Sélection ham and poultry pâtés with Espelette pepper for France, and a few export recipes. We're talking about less than 0.8% of our sales.

Hénaff sausages contain no preservatives or colorants. They do not contain nitrite salt. This is the component that gives charcuterie its pink color. That's why our sausages are more gray than pink.

Pâté Hénaff and Hénaff Sausages do not contain allergens. Some of our other products may contain allergens. In this case, in accordance with regulations, they are highlighted in the list of ingredients.

The NutriScore is just one of several rating systems (the SIGA system, for example, awards a gold medal to Pâté Hénaff for being unprocessed and additive-free). We understand the public's desire for a more balanced diet. Although we are very sensitive to the challenges of tomorrow, we do not wish to deploy the Nutri-score at this time. This rating system penalizes charcuterie products, due to their meat profile and their fat (saturated) and salt content, which are generally regulated by the code of practice. Conviviality is a core value at Jean Hénaff, and as such we advocate the consumption of quality pleasure products, to be consumed in reasonable quantities and as part of a balanced diet.

For Pâté Hénaff and Hénaff sausage, we use whole pigs and their best cuts: the pigs are bought locally (approx. 150 km) and slaughtered by us. For organic Hénaff pâté, we bring them in from a little further afield because pig farms are rarer, but we stay within the Brittany and Pays de Loire region. For other pork-based products that don't use whole pigs (terrines, rillettes, etc.), we buy French meat, mostly from Brittany.

Of all Hénaff products, 98% of meat comes from France and 90% from Brittany. The 2% imported is game meat and beef tongue, which are not always available in sufficient quantities in France. Our ultimate goal is 100% French meat.

Since 1915, we've been slaughtering our own pigs in our own abattoir in Pouldreuzic. This is probably the smallest private slaughterhouse in France, and accounts for 0.3% of Breton pigs. All cuts are then used in Pâté Hénaff, including the noblest (hams, fillets, roasts, etc.). They are blended with organic Sao Tomé pepper, freshly ground in our spice room, Guérande salt and a secret blend of spices. The whole is canned and then autoclaved before maturing for 6 weeks in Pouldreuzic to achieve its inimitable taste.

As with Pâté Hénaff, we use locally-slaughtered pigs (less than 150 km away) to make our sausages. The recipe? Pork (all cuts, including the noble parts like ham), sea salt and organic Sao Tomé pepper freshly ground in our spice room... and that's it! Why make it complicated when you can make it simple? Hénaff sausages have been preservative- and coloring-free since their launch in 1995.

As a reminder, this is the date of minimum durability (DDM): "The date of minimum durability is an indicative date. Once the date has passed, the product loses some of its taste or nutritional qualities (lower vitamin content, for example), but this is not harmful to health. This is the case for canned, frozen and dehydrated products. This DDM should not be confused with the DLC, whose definition is as follows: "The use-by date is the date after which the product concerned becomes hazardous to health. It is indicated on perishable food products. If the can is kept in a cool, dry place, the packaging is intact, there are no signs of corrosion, and it doesn't have an unusual odor or appearance when opened, then it can be consumed beyond the best-before date.

Once opened, our pâtés should be kept in the fridge and eaten within 3 days.

Fresh Hénaff products can be frozen. A 3-week limit is recommended to preserve taste qualities.

Locally, it's been cooked for generations! Pâté Hénaff is so special because it's made from the finest cuts of pork. Sliced or diced for a return trip to the frying pan, stuffed with vegetables or poultry before baking, it's a perfect addition to any pork-based recipe.

We're discovering new ones all the time, and the possibilities are endless - just a few examples on the Recipes page.

All Hénaff packaging is recyclable: cans, cardboard and jar lids on one side, jars on the other. Hénaff sausage trays are made from recycled, recyclable bottles. The lid is disposable.

Hénaff's packaging materials are made from recycled materials: over 75% for metal cans, 70% for glass, 90% for transport cardboard, 75% for product cardboard and 70% for plastic trays.

Pâté Hénaff has been accompanying French Navy sailors on all the seas of the globe since 1920! So it's our sailors who call the little blue box "Le Pâté du Mataf", the mataf being a sailor in the ship's jargon. It's said to be the best cure for seasickness!

Yes, Thomas Pesquet took it with him on the Proxima mission to the International Space Station in 2016. It was a personal choice on his part. It's anecdotal vs. the collaboration we've had with the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales de Toulouse and the ESA (European Space Agency) over the last ten years, through several projects: The Special Events Meals program, which has brought together CNES, Ducasse and Hénaff to cook festive dishes eaten on special occasions (arrival, departure, birthday, etc.) since 2011. We're talking about 2,000 boxes (starters, main courses, desserts) a year, 200 of which go to the International Space Station. At the same time, ESA offers European astronauts the chance to choose a particular chef to take on board a few dishes of their choice: British astronaut Tim Peaks chose Chef Blumenthal in 2014, Thomas Pesquet opted for Thierry Marx in 2016 (Proxima mission) and 2020 (Alpha mission). These chefs all came to Pouldreuzic to concoct these dishes. Finally, in 2019, Hénaff signed a long-term framework agreement with CNES to study food solutions for future long-distance flights to the Moon or Mars: the idea is no longer to take food on board because the flights are too long, but to produce it on board. The Jean Hénaff Group is bringing with it an entire Breton industry of excellence to solve the technical issues involved: for example, prototype cushioning foams to protect technical equipment have been delivered to the International Space Station. Some of these foams are edible (in the form of gingerbread), while the rest become a substrate for growing salads! Hénaff piloted this Ecopack project, in line with a circular economy where everything that goes into space must be used again.

At the beginning of the last century, Hénaff was steam-powered, so it needed water! After the 2nd World War, we decided to retain control by building a water tower in 1954, followed by a water treatment plant in 1960. Since then, Hénaff has been totally self-sufficient in water. In 2007, we were awarded the Loire-Bretagne water agency trophy in the "industrial water management" category. For the company's 100th anniversary, we dressed up our water tower as a huge box of Pâté Hénaff: the must-have selfie spot in the Pays Bigouden!

It was a unique product (using whole, local pork, slaughtered by us as for Pâté and Saucisses Hénaff), but transposing our know-how to sausages was complex, and we found it hard to control quality. Quality being non-negotiable for us, the number of downgraded sausages was very high with each production run, which was not economically viable. As good Bretons, we were stubborn for 5 years, but had to stop in January 2019. We're not stopping ourselves from doing it again, under a different model.

You can rest assured that you can enjoy our pâtés and rillettes with complete peace of mind. These products are sterilized.