Processor has been quietly building a new facility and is the only brand in the UK to currently apply the stringent organic standard.
In a press release, Grimbsy-based salmon processor JCS Fish writes that it has launched a new range of its BigFish brand called “Signature” from a specially-built smokehouse using traditional kilns.
Though a spokesperson from JCS Fish told SalmonBusiness that it was also celebrating a new milestone: “It’s the first time that the company has been able to launch a high care product. Before, it was focused on frozen salmon and had to process smoked salmon in another factory”.
The new smokehouse is part of a wider programme of investment at JCS Fish and the spokesperson said that it had been open for “a couple of months”.
The smokehouse has been built and certified to modern high-care production and hygiene standards but with traditional style kilns. It also allows the company to ensure certified Organic status for products made with Organic fish.
The new range uses superior fish, including certified Organic salmon and a standard salmon with designated origin (PGI) status from Scotland that is certified to the GLOBALG.A.P. (GGN) aquaculture standard.
BigFish is the only brand in the UK to currently apply this standard.
The premium range comprises of Oak Smoked Salmon, Oak Smoked Organic Salmon, and Oak Smoked Sea Trout, prepared using whole sides of fish which are cured by hand with natural salt. They are slowly smoked in a traditional kiln for an extended time with oak and other natural flavourings.
In the press release, JCS Fish co-founder and MD Andrew Coulbeck said: “Smoked fish has long been part of our family heritage, but we only recently decided to bring it in-house again to give us the control and flexibility we were looking for. Signature is the result of our desire to create the most perfectly smoked products we could in our own Grimsby smokehouse. It also allows the company to ensure certified Organic status for products made with Organic fish. My entire working life has been in salmon and I am so proud of these Signature products. I think they are really something special.”
JCS Fish has a turnover of around GBP 7 million a year.
