FDF Scotland receives funding from Scottish Government to support more businesses to make their food healthier
Yesterday during a visit to Scottish butchery manufacturer Malcolm Allan, the Public Health Minister – Jenni Minto MSP – announced that the Scottish Government has provided a further year’s funding to Food and Drink Federation (FDF) Scotland’s Reformulation for Health Programme.
Since 2019, the programme has been supporting Scottish SME food and drink businesses to make everyday food and drink healthier. This has resulted in billions of calories and tonnes of fat, salt and sugar being removed from the Scottish diet.
During the visit Ms Minto had the opportunity to see Malcolm Allan’s famous lorne sausages and steak pies being made, while hearing about their successful projects to make their food healthier.
Malcolm Allan benefitted from bespoke support from the Reformulation for Health Programme and £5,000 funding from the programme’s Reformul8 Challenge Fund. This went towards funding laboratory testing, just one of many costs that can be associated with reformulation.
Paul Terris, NPD Manager at Malcolm Allan and Macsween of Edinburgh, said:
"Malcolm Allan were delighted to receive funding from FDF Scotland to reduce the salt, fat and calories in one of our popular lorne sausages.
"The project was very successful – the lorne sausage now contains 42% less salt, the fat has been reduced from 20% to 2.2% and the calories content has reduced by 55%.
"We sell 54% of all Scotland’s lorne sausage, producing an average of 50 tonnes of sausage each week. We are now excited to see how the learnings from this project can be expanded to other product ranges."
Public Health Minister Jenni Minto said:
"I congratulate Malcolm Allan on reformulating popular recipes to make them healthier, setting an example to manufacturers across Scotland. Businesses like this have made enormous progress in reducing the amount of fat, sugar or salt in the products in our supermarkets and restaurants.
"By funding the Reformulation for Health Programme, we are helping remove billions of calories from food and drink and enabling long term improvements to people’s diets."
Joanne Burns, FDF Scotland’s Reformulation for Health Manager, said:
"We are delighted to receive another year’s funding from the Scottish Government, allowing us to support more Scottish food and drink businesses to make their food healthier, from butchers and bakers to ready meal makers.
"Well done to Malcolm Allan on their successful reformulation project which highlights how reformulation can help grow your business and meet retailer and consumer demands for healthier products. This, along with many other businesses we have supported this year, will have a massive impact on improving the health of Scotland’s products and people."
If food and drink businesses are interested in finding out more about how FDF Scotland can support you with recipe reformulation, please email reformulation@fdfscotland.org.uk.
ENDS
For more information or for media opportunities, please contact kirsty.tinsdale@fdfscotland.org.uk / 07508 303 736
- FDF Scotland’s Reformulation for Health Programme, funded by the Scottish Government, is helping small and medium sized food companies to make their products healthier.
- FDF Scotland is a division of the FDF - the voice of the food and drink manufacturing industry – the UK's largest manufacturing sector.
Pic: Left to right - Joanne Burns, Reformulation for Health Manager, FDF Scotland; Gordon Robinson, Site Director, Malcolm Allan; Public Health Minister Jenni Minto MSP; James Macsween, FDF Scotland Chair and Managing Director of Macsween of Edinburgh; Paul Terris, NPD Manager, Malcolm Allan and Macsween of Edinburgh; David Thomson, Chief Executive Officer, FDF Scotland.