The Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) does not support the European Commission’s sudden wish to revise derrogations, granted to the Member States and currently being in force, to traditionally smoked meat and fish products that are intended for placing on the market in other Member States. Just as MoA does not support revision of maximum admissible level of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons for smoked products, distributed in other EU Member States that will harm producers and place them in conditions of unequal competition as compared with producers of smoked products in other EU Member States.
MoA is actively working to retain the currently enforced traditional smoking derrogations
for Latvia: traditionally smoked pig meat, hot smoked poultry, hot smoked sausages and hot smoked game meat and traditionally hot smoked fish. Among the EU Member States, Latvia was the first one, which pointed out to the EC that, at the present moment, it is not necessary to revise the traditional smoking norms in respect of Latvian produced smoked produce, regarding both the produce that is sold locally in Latvia and that distributed in other EU Member States because consuming traditional smoked products do not harm human health.
At the end of June, a new EU Regulation will enter into force on non-renewal of authorization, regarding the use of all the smoke flavouring primary products and deleting them from the Union list of authorised smoke flavouring primary products for use as such in or on foods and/or for the production of derived smoke flavourings because the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is concerned about a possibly genotoxic danger for consumers’ health. Latvia together with some other EU Member States has achieved a longer transition period for the use of smoke flavouring on meat, processed fish, fishery products as well as cheese and cheese products – 5 years until July 1, 2029, during that time business operators, involved in food chain, would still be able to use smoke flavourings.
If by the end of the transition period in 2029, no new smoke favourings have been developed, producers will be able to return to traditional smoking methods with wood smoke to retain traditional taste. The possible replacement of smoke flavourings with the traditional smoking method is the reason for a sudden EC decision urgently to revise the maximum norms of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons for smoked fish and to introduce them anew for smoked cheese.
Latvia is one of the few EU Member States, which is still smoking meat, fish and cheese, using traditional methods – wood smoke. The MoA is currently actively working on achieving support from other Member States as well that the derrogation has been retained for Latvia in the EU legislation for traditionally smoked pig meat, hot smoked poultry, hot smoked sausages and hot smoked game meat and tradiditionally smoked fish so that meat and fish processing enterprises, working for Latvia’s local marked, do not suffer.
Currently, apart Latvia, derrogations for traditionally smoked meat products also have Ireland, Croatia, Cyprus, Spain, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Finland and Sweden but for fish products – Latvia, Finland and Sweden.