Local Authorities Switching To Local Meat
UK - Locally sourced fresh meat purchases by ABC, Scotland’s largest red meat buying consortium, have jumped 30% in the three years since the Scottish Government changed its guidelines governing the procurement of goods for the public sector.
16 November 2007
2 minute read
The figures have been released by red meat industry body Quality Meat Scotland, which has been working with Local Authorities and other public sector bodies to help increase the amount of locally produced red meat being served up in our hospitals and schools.
ABC, which has eleven local authorities on its books mainly in the West of Scotland, has an annual fresh meat turnover of £2.1 million.
Speaking at the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) Conference today (Thursday 15th November) in Peebles QMS Chairman Donald Biggar said: “This is excellent news for Scottish red meat companies who are supplying branded Scotch Beef and Lamb and Specially Selected Pork to major red meat buyers like ABC.
“It’s also a feather in the cap for QMS which has been working behind the scenes for several years, helping public procurement agencies to develop tenders that can give Scottish red meat companies a better chance of winning the business without falling foul of the governing EU legislation.
“Even more importantly though it means that some of the most vulnerable members of our society have the chance to eat red meat that is freshly produced by the Scottish industry and comes with unique guarantees on quality, production standards and animal health and welfare.”
Recent research by QMS indicates that all of Scotland’s 32 Local Authorities now include sustainability criteria in their food supply contracts – an increase from 27 last year. On top of this, increasing numbers of public buyers have asked QMS to assist in tracing their red meat supplies back to the Scottish farm of origin.
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