Customers should know more about sustainable products
European consumers should be able to buy more sustainable products – and be better informed about them. This is the aim of the European Commission’s new consumer agenda. Among other things, it is about more resource and climate protection. The agenda is the logical consequence of the so-called Green New Deal. The EU already presented the comprehensive program of measures for better living conditions in Europe a year ago. The CleanSmoke smoking process and the CleanSmoke Coalition can contribute to achieving these goals.
With the CleanSmoke smoking process, food can be smoked not only with low levels of pollutants but also in a way that protects the climate and conserves resources. The EU has therefore already labelled this innovative process as “Best Available Technique”. CleanSmoke is a stable smoke freshly produced with compressed air from primary smoke condensate – free of harmful substances such as tar and ash and the contamination with polycyclic aromatics (PAH) is largely eliminated. The CleanSmoke Coalition, a joint initiative of primary smoke product manufacturers, food producers and retailers, aims to educate consumers and the public about the potential of this groundbreaking technology.
The ecological balance speaks for CleanSmoke
Compared to CleanSmoke, the classic smoking methods of friction and smoulder smoking are significantly worse. This has been proven by a life cycle assessment of the German Institute of Food Technologies (DIL). No less than about half of the energy and – based on the current energy mix – about 30 percent of the climate gas emissions can be saved with the CleanSmoke technology in relation to the German market for smoked products. However, CleanSmoke is currently used for just one in ten smoked foods, which means a saving of 7.2 percent in energy consumption and 8 percent in greenhouse gases. In Germany alone, the savings potential is around 600 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy. Sweden is already much further ahead because there, more than 80 percent of smoked products are produced with CleanSmoke. A real contribution to climate protection.
About 72,000 tons of CO2 equivalents less per year
If all smoked products in Germany were smoked with CleanSmoke, the energy consumption would be about one billion kWh. Of this, 97.6 percent would be used for the smoking process and 2.4 percent for the production of raw materials. That makes around 228,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalents in emissions, 2.5 percent of which is for raw material production. In conventional smoking, energy consumption and climate impact are much greater. Approximately 1.6 billion kWh of energy would be consumed in this process, 18.2 percent of which would be used to supply the raw materials. And 300,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalents would be produced, almost 90 percent of which would be emitted during smoking.
What advantage would CleanSmoke have for the climate? Around 72,000 tons of CO2 equivalents could be saved per year. That is roughly the amount that is produced in the manufacture of around 14,000 cars.
But that’s not all: Each year, the water consumption for smoking could be reduced by about 90 percent and about 2,600 tons of cleaning agents could be saved. In addition, around 3,400 tons less wood would be used. CleanSmoke also reduces traffic emissions, as there is no need to deliver wood or remove ashes. A supply of primary smoke condensates, which are produced under controlled conditions with the highest environmental protection standards, takes place much less frequently. Products smoked with CleanSmoke are therefore ideal for the new EU consumer protection goals.