Red meat promotion and development body Quality Meat Scotland with East Ayrshire, Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Highlands and Fife Councils, as well as Tayside Contracts covering Perth and Kinross, Dundee and Angus Councils received the award following full traceability audits of each region, which showed all the red meat served in public facilities was sourced locally.

The councils got only one of three highly commended Government Opportunities Scotland Excellence in Public Procurement Awards, announced last night at the Procurex Conference in Glasgow.

The public sector is of great importance to the Scottish red meat industry, as procurement of butcher meat in Scotland's public sector is estimated to be worth approximately 36 million per annum.

Donald Biggar, Chairman of QMS, said: “This commendation is credit to these councils’ work to ensure local residents are fed top quality, locally reared red meat. In turn, this supports local farmers and provides a key market for the industry.

“More Scots are looking locally for their food and drink, and there is no reason that people shouldn’t get the high quality, local food from their local authority.

“I’m pleased to say that all 32 of Scotland’s local authorities are now putting sustainability at the heart of their supply policies, up from 27 the year before, but there is still much work to be done with other public bodies throughout the country.“

The winner was announced at the Procurex Conference yesterday at the SECC in Glasgow. Donald Biggar earlier presented to delegates about the work many bodies are doing to introduce more sustainable measures into their red meat sourcing, and QMS staff were on hand to offer advice to those that have contracts up for renewal.

QMS recently published new guidelines on the sustainable procurement of red meat in the cost sector and many buyers in Scotland are using these to their advantage.

Further Reading

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You can find out more information on QMS work in public procurement by clicking here.