Representatives of the food industry get together for a general meeting in Brussels
One year ago, members of the CleanSmoke Coalition (CSC) shaped their commitment to smoking with purified smoke. During their first congress in the spring of 2017 in Frankfurt, Germany, they laid the foundation of the organisation. Their aim is to future-proof the smoking of foods.
Now, retail representatives and producers from Europe and America met for the first time at a general meeting in Brussels. In his review of the year’s events, President Uwe Vogel was pleased with the cooperation of key bodies in Brussels and the marketing activities in Europe. To coordinate the tasks of the CSC, the organisation of working groups for regulatory matters, marketing and science has been advanced. The group leaders will be determined at the next board meeting. Vogel also sees the number of members who are already actively supporting the organisation as a sign of wide acceptance and support. The organisation views itself as an industry partner in all of Europe. Uwe Vogel appealed to members to further commit themselves to educate the public – in the interest of responsible nutrition. Vogel predicts that in the future consumers will hold food producers and retailers more accountable: foods should be produced sustainably, with as little contamination as possible. “This puts conventional smoking under more and more pressure“, said Vogel.
The CleanSmoke Seal
In order to let consumers benefit from CleanSmoke products, producers will endorse their sustainable and safe products with a unique seal. This opens up new and interesting international markets for these pioneers of the food processing industry and retailers. The CSC already supports the entering of these markets with its extensive network and marketing activities: consumers can read up about the label on the dedicated website www.cleansmoke.eu, which provides information about the benefits of the process in every European language. The CSC provides producers and retailers with templates that can be used to develop advertisements, posters and brochures, communicating the convincing arguments for CleanSmoke. In addition, the CSC regularly supplies the media as well as consumer organisations with information.
Sustainable smoking for organic products
The appearance of the CleanSmoke Coalition at the BioFach 2018 [a trade fair for organic food] in Nuremberg confirmed how future-proof the process is. For the first time, representatives of retail and the food-manufacturing industry, as well as organic food associations, were able to experience the modern smoking process first-hand and taste freshly smoked organic products. CleanSmoke managed to convince without any reservations.
Which is another reason why the CSC is engaged in talks with the European Commission, working on a distinct labelling in the interest of the fair information of consumers. Primarily, the CSC demands a Europe-wide acceptance of CleanSmoke as smoke, allowing producers to use the process without reservations. The EU commission has long confirmed that smoke generated from primary smoke products is actual smoke rather than smoke flavour – same taste, but without harmful additives. The fact that CleanSmoke offers added benefits especially to producers for organic foods means that as a consequence, sustainable smoking should be declared as the preferred smoking method in the EG rules on organic farming.
“Every innovation has its own time. The time for CleanSmoke is now“, says Uwe Vogel and encourages more industry partners to join as members and fellow campaigners, who will meet again in October at the latest – for the third CleanSmoke Coalition Congress.