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[Chris__M]

I am amused by the (slow) merry-go-round of grill dealerships here in the UK.

Of course, none of the UK pellet grill suppliers *make* grills, they are all imported from the US, although (usually) made to UK specs (voltage, and sometimes temperature range). This normally usually involves signing a deal agreeing to represent them for X years. In my limited experience, Traeger and GMG seem to have a single dealer at any one time, while companies like Louisiana Grills presumably have a similar deal with a wholesaler, as they tend to be available from numerous small dealers, and also at quite a few garden centres.

Anyway, when I bought my first grill, it was from The American BBQ Company, who were the sole Traeger dealer in the UK. A few years on, they were no longer supplying Traegers, but now represented Green Mountain Grills (GMG), and I bought my second grill from them. But a couple of years ago, they switched again and are now selling Traegers again, although they are still stocking GMG spares. The also offer Cookshack smokers via their Commerical sales department.

A short while ago, I came across a UK company called Firefly BBQ, who sell their own range of BBQ rubs and sauces, manufactured in the UK. I've only just noticed that they appear to now be an outlet for GMG, as well as other more conventional (and some unconventional grills).

All good stuff - I am pleased to see both Traeger and GMG represented in the market place, as well as Louisiana.

[02ebz06]

At least you have a little bit of a selection.

[Chris__M]

At least you have a little bit of a selection.

Exactly. I think it is healthy to have some competition there.

I'm vaguely surprised that I haven't seen anything out of Germany; at one point there were some interesting PID-based alternative controllers coming from there, and as their voltage is close enough to ours, I kept an eye on it. I expected that eventually we might see a pellet grill come from there, but as far as I know, *everything* is still from the US (although perhaps actually manufactured elsewhere).

[Bentley]

Any Pellet suppliers (i.e. manufactured there) in Great Britain or even the continent for that matter?  Has it gotten big enough there for that yet?

[Chris__M]

Most of the food grade pellets you see here are US based. All the usual brands.

Liverpool Wood Pellets supply heating pellets (no, I wouldn't use them) but also used to import Lil Devils at an absolutely bargain (for UK) price. I quite liked them as a general cooking pellet, but for some reason, they stopped doing any kind of cooking pellet a couple of years ago. Obviously not making any money.

A good few years back, I bought some brilliant oak pellets that were made in the UK, for food use. But it was a kind of hobby business, I think, and when I next looked for some more, the guy wasn't there.

Every now and then, someone chirps up that such and such UK heating brand is food safe, but when you look into it, it is "a friend of a friend told me..." and the suppliers themselves say completely the opposite - usually "we are not aware of the regulations for food-use pellets, so we cannot say that our pellets are suitable". I think someone paid a lawyer for that phrase once, and now everyone uses it.

However, I've recently bought from two new local sources, about which I know little, other than the pellets are food grade.

The first company is called Exstream, and they have started selling via Amazon UK. They are based in Somerset, and I can't find anything to say whether they are manufacturing here or importing and rebagging. A full range through - apple, beech, hickory, mesquite, cherry and chestnut, plus more. Their website is non-existant - still showing a default "null" website - but good communications from them.

The other company is Alfresco Chef. Here's an excerpt from their website:

Our Pellets are produced from European fresh cut round wood. The wood is debarked, broken down into wood chips and dried in a rotary drum dryer, before crushing into small pieces and compressing into wood pellets with no binders or fillers added.

Our range of pellets are available in a variety of species to infuse your food with smoke flavour.

Oak
Maple
Apple
Cherry
Chestnut
Walnut (European equivalent to Hickory)
Acacia (European equivalent to Mesquite)
Beech

Interestingly, Alfresco Chef is coming at this not from the pellet grill end of the market, but outdoor pizza ovens, which are increasingly popular over here. See this for their range: https://thealfrescochef.co.uk/ovens/

I've used 10kg of the Exstream chestnut, which was quite nice - not particularly over-flavoured, and I am just breaking into the Alfresco Chef, where I have Apple, Walnut and Cherry, a 10kg bag of each.

[Chris__M]

Other than those new brands, the brand I buy most of is probably CookShack, which I think someone here recommended to me.

They work great, but it just seems so wasteful to be shipping wood pellets across the Atlantic!

[Bar-B-Lew]

Chris, unless you have some different laws or regulations in the UK than here, there is no such thing as a food grade pellet in the USA.  Some people put that on their packaging, but unless something changed in the last few years I am not aware of any standard for food grade pellets.

Now, I don't take a chance on heating pellets, but some on this board do as they have talked directly to the source to discuss how the pellets are made to ensure no glues, wood that puts off harmful gases when burned, etc. are used in their production processes.

[Chris__M]

Oh, we certainly have different laws and regulations here!

But even so, I think you are right.

"Food grade" invariable arises from a pellet user saying "I've been told this brand (of heating pellet) is 'food safe'".

The fact that the manufacturers tend to respond immediately with their "we are not aware of the regulations for food-use pellets, so we cannot say that our pellets are suitable" denial indicates they don't want to be drawn in on something that might have legal ramifications down the road.

But there are other issues too. I think your heating pellets will often be "good" woods to cook with - oak or alder or similar?

Here, the biggest brand is made of spruce and pine. They are the trees that grow here that are easily managed and harvested for heating pellets. And you don't get to choose which wood is in your pellets.

Add to that the issue with mineral oils being used in the manufacturing, and I don't want to use any pellets that aren't sold specifically for grill or pizza oven use.

[02ebz06]

Don't know if Traeger still does it, but they used flavored oils instead getting the flavor from the actual species of wood.
 

[Bentley]

I am a heating pellet user.  I make sure they are 100% hardwood, I really dont think the lump growing out of my neck really has any connection!

[Chris__M]

I am a heating pellet user.  I make sure they are 100% hardwood, I really dont think the lump growing out of my neck really has any connection!

I don't doubt it. But I credit you with the know-how to make sure what you are receiving as heating pellets are what you want to cook with.

As mentioned above, where specified, the majority of heating pellets here are spruce and pine, neither of which I would want to cook with. And where this might not be the case, none of the UK heating pellet companies will guarantee the continued content or quality of their pellets. They are making pellets for heating, and ensuring they are also ok for cooking is a problem they don't want.

So our market is totally different from yours.

The problem is that the main source of information is, naturally, from the US. So some Brit over here who has just bought their first pellet grills sees numerous posts on US forums about cooking with heating pellets, and parrots that to their friends, not bothering to ask whether UK heating pellets are the same as US ones. Next thing you know, they are complaining about the inside of their grill being covered in sticky tar, and their food tasting bitter.

[Chris__M]

Note also - although we have oak, apple, alder etc in this country, they tend not to be the trees harvested for wood. Our tree crops are softwood.

We actually import hardwood for building and furniture making, so turning it into heating pellets in any great volume is not going to happen.

[Bentley]

To many VOC's in softwood to use it in a pellet grill. I have used it to cook when camping in the Sierra's, but that was usually grilling or coals that would heat skillets!

[Chris__M]

On the wood pellet question again, this conversation prompted me to ask the two "new-to-me" local pellet suppliers where the wood came from.

One of them has come back to me, confirming that "the UK does not have the forestry infrastructure to meet the demand for the UK smoking market" and that the predominant wood grown and harvested here is, indeed, spruce and pine.

Turns out that the pellets they sell mostly come from the Ukraine, where the main woods grown and harvested are Scots pine, European oak, Common beech, Norway spruce, European birch, Common alder, European ash, Hornbeam and Silver fir. So still a lot of softwoods, but decidely more hardwood options.

They were the company who also sold me the chestnut pellets (which were good), which doesn't surprise me, as that is a fairly common wood across the UK and Europe.

Hope this was of interest.

[Chris__M]

I was a little shocked this morning to see that Lakeland, a popular and otherwise sensible kitchen store (online and high street) are now selling these "for pizza and BBQ use".

 [ Invalid Attachment ]

It says it there on the bag - "For use in all wood pellet boilers and stoves" and "Derived from 100% virgin soft wood".

They are good folk, so I've dropped them a line with links to why this might not be a good thing to be selling to customers.