Portuguese smoked meats and sausages as a gastrodiplomacy resource: An incompatibility between gastronomic promotion and public health?

The use of smoke as a food preservative exemplifies a highly sophisticated cultural interaction between humans and natural elements. It serves to extend the shelf life of food products while simultaneously enhancing their sensory characteristics. In Portugal, the practice of producing smoked meats and sausages (“enchidos”), traditionally associated with the preservation of pork beyond the typical household winter slaughter season, has profound cultural and territorial significance. Beyond ensuring protein availability, smoked meats and sausages constitute an integral part of Portugal's gastronomic heritage, representing a notable cultural and economic asset. The regulation of their contaminants, particularly Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH), have been established following European standards. Given the widely acknowledged carcinogenic potential of PAH, a paradox emerges regarding Portugal's acceptance of elevated levels of these contaminants, which is rationalized by a defence of gastronomic culture and local economies. Through a derogation that permits higher PAH levels in smoked meat products intended for domestic consumption, these predominantly artisanal and traditional products are precluded from being marketed within the European economic area, thereby creating barriers to their dissemination and inclusion in gastrodiplomacy policies. This article examines the cultural, economic, food safety, and public health dimensions associated with Portuguese smoked meats and sausages. It analyses the challenges posed by regulatory frameworks. With it, this article analyses the obstacles to promoting these products, in particular, and Portuguese gastronomy, as a whole, on a global scale, from the lens of gastrodiplomacy and the consolidation of such strategy aiming to yield economic, diplomatic, cultural, tourism, and other benefits.