87 percent less particulate matter with the CleanSmoke smoking process
Air pollution with is one of the biggest threats to people’s health in Europe. It is leading to around 300,000 premature deaths every year. According to a recent Eurobarometer survey, 67 per cent of Europeans believe that European air quality standards need to be strengthened. Especially to reduce exposure to particulate matter.
Particulate Matter is mainly caused by burning wood in stoves or fireplaces or by tire abrasion. Fine dust is also released into the air during the conventional smoking of food. By comparison, the CleanSmoke smoking process reduces this amount by 87 %.
CleanSmoke is smoke freshly produced from primary smoke condensate using compressed air. Analyses carried out as part of the European Eco-innovation Action Plan (EcoAP) showed that CleanSmoke can reduce not only particulate matter but also volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by 64 percent. “Smokehouses are also increasingly viewed critically because of their emissions,” says Uwe Vogel, Chairman of the CleanSmoke Coalition (CSC). The CSC is a joint initiative of primary smoke product manufacturers, food producers and retailers.
Cleaner air with CleanSmoke
Politicians are aware of the fine dust problem. The EU Commission therefore announced stricter limits for air pollution at the end of October, which are more closely aligned with the current recommendations of the World Health Organisation (WHO). With the new guidelines, 70 percent of premature deaths due to particulate matter could be avoided over the next ten years. Among other things, the amended regulations dictate that exposure to particulate matter should be reduced by more than half – from 25 to 10 micrograms per cubic meter – by 2030. From 2050, the air in Europe should even be free of pollutants. However, much remains to be done to achieve this goal. Although air quality in Europe has improved over the past 10 years, the pace must be stepped up. This naturally includes looking at production processes that can be optimized.
CleanSmoke makes it easy to comply with air pollutant limits. The primary smoke products for the CleanSmoke smoking process are cleaned of undesirable substances. These are for example ash, soot, tar and PAHs, and thus also fine dust, in a multi-stage filter process. During the subsequent smoking process, there is neither open fire nor embers, which is why no pollutants are produced.
EU explicitly endorses CleanSmoke
The European Union (EU) has been demanding for years that only environmentally friendly processing technologies be used in the manufacturing industry. Therefore, it also advocates the use of primary smoke products. Due to their fractionation and purification from undesirable substances, these are considered less harmful to health than the conventional smoking process (EU Regulation 2065/2003). Not least for this reason, the European Commission has awarded CleanSmoke the title of “Best Available Technique” (BAT).
So far, however, only about every tenth smoked food product is made with CleanSmoke. With that in mind, Uwe Vogel warns: “Clean air is essential for the survival of companies in the vicinity of residential areas. Otherwise they are threatened with closure or would have to retrofit their operations at great technical expense.”