LABELLING of Scottish produce could be extended to restaurants and take-away food shops as ministers work on the new national food policy to be unveiled later this year.
Clearer identification of Scottish food is among the main aims of ministers as the government seeks to capitalise on consumer demand for local sourcing to bolster Scotland's farmers and producers.
A change to the food procurement rules for schools
and hospitals could also be on the cards in a bid to allow local authorities to choose fresher or more local food, rather than the cheapest, from catering suppliers.
Rural affairs minister Richard Lochhead is mulling the responses to the consultation on his national food policy, which will be unveiled at the Royal Highland Show this summer. He will also be considering the implications for Scottish suppliers and shoppers of last week's recommendation by the Competition Commission to create an ombudsman for supermarkets.
The public mood is in Mr Lochhead's favour. Consumers consistently claim to support Scottish produce but are frustrated by poor labelling or supermarket pricing strategies that favour food and drink from elsewhere.
Evidence of this shift in attitudes away from supermarkets and towards suppliers came last week when a family-run potato business fired the first shot for Scotland's food growers by choosing to end a multi-million-pound contract supplying one of the UK's largest supermarket chains. Taypack Potatoes in Perthshire cut its £32 million-a-year contract with Asda, Britain's third-largest supermarket group, as it struggled with the effects of two fuel rise prices over the past 12 months and a threefold increase in the price of fertiliser.
Changing the procurement rules for catering would prove an easy win for Mr Lochhead. But labelling is a much more difficult prospect because most law governing retail is reserved to Westminster while country-of-origin idenification is carried out by the European Union which recognises only member states, resulting in meat marked simply as "UK". Additional labelling is provided voluntarily by supermarkets.
The catering and hospitality industry is likely to resist any attempt to force restaurants to disclose the origin of, for example, meat. But a voluntary code and a nationally-recognised labelling scheme could provide a compromise.
Gareth Williams, Highlands and Islands Manager for the Scottish Council for Development and Industry (SCDI) said: "Procurement is one of the government's main tools to support Scottish businesses, influence the quality and sustainability of Scotland's food and create a culture of healthier eating. Spending by the public sector, including the NHS, amounts to £85 million per annum.
"While EU rules preclude public bodies from discriminating against suppliers from other regions or countries, there are ways that procurement rules can be used to favour local suppliers which would particularly benefit food and drink producers.
A commitment to purchase "fresh produce" can favour local suppliers and a requirement for a maximum response to orders ensures that supplies must come from the local area and that the successful bidder has a local presence."
Mr Lochhead has already made impressive progress in persuading supermarkets to engage with Holyrood, and recently hosted a summit meeting in Edinburgh attended by all of the 'big four' chains including Tesco and Asda – a feat that would have been unthinkable only a few months ago. The considerable achievements of his team have smoothed the path for some imaginative and bold ways of protecting Scotland's nutrtional health and the future of its farmers and food suppliers. But retailers, and not governments, still hold the real power over consumers, as last week's report by the Competition Commission proved.
Despite hopes the commission would curb the power of supermarkets, the report called merely for the introduction of an ombudsman to protect suppliers from abuse.
Disappointed by the outcome, the Federation of Small Businesses will launch a Keep Local Trade campaign in Scotland later this month to highlight the benefits of independent shops, which it says provide a personal service and have ties to local communities.
Jim Dowd, chairman of the small shops group at Westminster, has indicated that his committee is unlikely to let the matter lie.
Mr Williams did comment that Mr Lochhead's draft food policy is missing key ingredients by overlooking Scotland's huge drinks manufacturing industry.
"SCDI welcomes the Scottish Government's discussion paper on a National Food Policy and the commitment to a joined up approach to delivery on the back of last year's launch of the industry-led Scotland Food and Drink, with its commitment to grow the sector's annual sales from £7.5 billion to £10 billion by 2017.
"However, it is utterly perplexing for the National Food Strategy to present a vision of a more joined-up sector while excluding the drinks industry, which runs counter to EU definitions of a foodstuff.
"SCDI research shows that five-sixths of food and drink exports are beverages, and many of the competitiveness, sustainability and public health challenges facing the drinks industry are inseparable from the food industry, and policy changes for one will directly impact on the other.
"For example, Scotland has a very successful bottled water sector which exports to dozens of countries around the world; promotes the purity of Scotland's natural environment; and supports hundreds of jobs in rural Scotland.
"However, if the final strategy is indeed to exclude the key ingredient of drinks policy, then a parallel drinks strategy created, addressing the same issues and enabling the drinks industry's expertise on tourism and trade to be shared."
The full article contains 921 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
