H. Forman & Son’s London Cure Smoked Salmon has become London’s first PGI protected product

London Cure Smoked Salmon joins list of European protected foods

H. Forman & Son is delighted to announce that we have made history: we are the first London food producer of either food or drink to be designated by the hallowed European Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status for London Cure smoked salmon.

PGI status, enforced by law, is designed to protect and celebrate traditional regional foods. It's a protection similar to the Appellation system, which in a similar way designates that Gorgonzola is from Italy and Champagne from France.

In order to receive this status, the entire product must be processed within a specific region. Scottish salmon and Scottish wild salmon already have their own PGI statuses, which means the fish can only come from Scotland. Because the process of smoking traditional smoked Scottish salmon originated in the East End of London, it is a great honour finally to have a designation that reflects our craft, which we have been practicing for over 100 years.

The PGI label also protects consumers from buying cheap imitations that are not of equivalent quality or have a different flavour. In order to be considered London Cure, the salmon must be smoked and processed by hand, and cannot have any additives apart from salt and oak smoke. This eliminates approximately 99.99% of our competitors, who use liquid smoke injections, filleting machines, sugar and other ingredients in their product.

Forman & Field, our home delivery service, already features 11 PGI products in its catalogue, but our biggest seller and the foundation of our reputation is our stunning salmon. We believe our mission as the last owned family smokehouse in London is to educate the public about the lost art of smoking salmon. We don’t only sell salmon: we regularly invite the public to visit the smokehouse, with tours and open days, so they can understand the manufacturing process. A viewing gallery is installed over our factory, so that any visitor can see the end to end process.

A whole generation of diners, who are used to the availability of smoked salmon sandwiches at every supermarket, petrol station and caf in the country, have only ever had poorly processed, slimy fish.  Is it a surprise, then, that they’ve decided they don’t like smoked salmon? They don’t know they were consuming an inferior product that barely resembled the real thing. Our mission is to bring salmon to the forefront of people’s minds as a luxury, handcrafted food.

Would a restauranteur in France dare to put prosecco or cava as the bubbly on his wine list? We don’t think so! As a chef in the UK, and especially in London, we urge you to celebrate home-grown tradition by only serving London Cure Smoked salmon – once your diners taste the difference, they won’t accept anything less.