CleanSmoke Coalition launches quality seal label for smoked foods

12 Sep 2019 --- Brussels-based CleanSmoke Coalition has launched an internationally recognized quality seal CleanSmoke label which guarantees that smoked foods are clean and free of toxic substances such as ash, tar or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). The association aims to innovate smoking in its various forms which includes state-of-the-art smoking technology that is clean for human health and the environment while enhancing flavors and food conservation.

“CleanSmoke offers significant advantages for a healthier diet. The harmful additives do not come into contact with the food in the first place,” says Uwe Vogel, Chairman of the CleanSmoke Coalition.

Due to its innovative filtration system, CleanSmoke products are free of resins and tar. The process generates smoke under controlled conditions, which is then condensed with drinking water and cleaned of unwanted substances such as ash, tar and PAH in a filter process.

All parameters, such as time, temperature and humidity, meet the conditions of conventional smoking processes. As a result, CleanSmoke products fully preserve such key properties as taste, color or preservation. The European Union explicitly supports the use of such primary smoke condensates (EU Regulation 2065/2003).

Smoking food has a long history as one of the oldest methods of preserving food. Although smoke is effective against fungi, viruses and bacteria, it can still affect human health. This is because contaminants such as ash, tar and PAH find their way into meat, sausage, fish or cheese during conventional smoking and are then consumed as well.

Environmental concerns covered
CleanSmoke products are also environmentally-friendly. For example, smoking with primary condensate produces up to 80 percent less CO2 emissions than conventional smoking. Because CleanSmoke produces neither open fire nor blaze, neither nitrogen oxides (NOx) nor carbon monoxide (CO) are released into the atmosphere which is additionally beneficial to the environment, says the organization.

Germany is one of the countries with the highest consumption of smoked foods per head. The German Institute of Food Technology (DIL) has assessed that if meat only in Germany was smoked exclusively with CleanSmoke, 40 fewer metric tons of cleaning chemicals would wind up in German sewages and over 550 million kWh of energy could be saved every year.

CleanSmoke products require fewer resources for their production cycle. As its processes only use sawdust from the woodworking industry, they consume less wood for the production of primary smoke condensate than for conventional smoking methods. More importantly, no additional trees need to be chopped at all. Approximately 830,000 m3 of water could be saved in Germany alone – as much as the entire population of the German city Kiel drinks in one year. 

By Anni Schleicher