A HISTORIC Albury smokehouse is honouring its past and embracing its future.
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Murray River Smokehouse, previously known as Butts Gourmet Smokehouse, now references the region in its new brand released this week.
Murray River Smokehouse co-owner Anthony Ainsworth said as the business evolved, the change had been in the pipeline for some time.
Mr Ainsworth said new customers often wanted to know the origin of their produce.
"Butts has got a long and proud history so it was a difficult decision to change our name," he said.
"But to evolve the business and showcase the region, the label needed to reflect that; we decided the time had come."
Butts Gourmet Smokehouse dates back to the 1950s when Arthur Butt developed the business out of the original butchery on the former Hume Highway site.
Inspired in part by the new Australians at the Bonegilla immigration Centre on the other side of the Murray River, Mr Butt started smoking fish during the 1970s.
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Butts Smokehouse has supplied Parliament House, embassies and the Royal family.
Today it supplies 25 products through four farmers' markets and 25 independent retailers and restaurants.
Mr Ainsworth said they continued to innovate through traditional and contemporary recipes.
He said they used ethically-raised animals and their products were free of artificial ingredients.
"We have a clean label, which means all of the ingredients listed on the packaging are natural and free of E numbers," Mr Ainsworth said.
"People know exactly what they're getting."
Mr Ainsworth said they used Riverina red gum for smoke and were committed to working toward carbon neutrality by spring.
"Our objective is to make the business carbon neutral," he said.
"As technology has developed, there are more ways we can sequester carbon dioxide. With carbon offsets, we should be able to sequester the equivalent of what we produce."
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