T. 07768 654955 E. scott.walker@scconsultancy.uk
Why Meat Matters for Scotland’s Children
A new report from Food Standards Scotland (FSS), produced in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, has shed important light on the nutritional importance of meat and dairy in the diets of Scotland’s children and young people and has once again underlined a simple but vital truth: meat matters.
The study explored what might happen if meat and dairy consumption were reduced, following a recommendation from the UK’s Climate Change Committee for a 20% cut in meat consumption by 2030, rising to 35% by 2050. What the findings make clear, however, is just how significant a role meat plays in supporting the health, growth and development of Scotland’s young people.
Meat: A Key Source of Essential Nutrients
On any given day, around 90% of Scottish children and young people eat meat, and almost 100% consume dairy. These foods are not just popular they are nutritional cornerstones. The report highlights that meat and dairy provide many of the essential nutrients that growing bodies need, including protein, iron, zinc, iodine, selenium, calcium, and vitamin B12.
Importantly, the research found that some of these nutrients especially zinc, iodine, and calcium are already too low in many young people’s diets, particularly among 11–15-year-olds. Reducing meat or dairy intake could make those deficiencies worse, even when care is taken to replace them with other foods.
A Risk of Nutrient Gaps
The study’s authors caution that, while it’s possible to replace some of the nutrients provided by meat and dairy, it’s not always sufficient. Many children and teenagers are already at risk of low micronutrient intake, and cutting meat and dairy could exacerbate those deficiencies, with potential consequences for growth, energy levels, and cognitive development.
In short, the report recognises that meat and dairy remain vital contributors to a balanced diet, particularly for young people who may already be struggling to eat well.
Climate Ambitions Need Nutritional Balance
While the research acknowledges that reducing meat and dairy could help to lower greenhouse gas emissions, it also notes that children and young people make up only 15% of Scotland’s population meaning the environmental gains from cutting their meat consumption would be relatively small compared to the potential nutritional risks.
The report concludes that any future dietary changes must be carefully balanced to avoid worsening existing health and nutrition issues. As it stands, achieving climate goals safely would only be possible if children’s overall diets improved in line with the Eatwell Guide. A challenge that requires a shift in children’s diets to a much wider range of food choices than what they eat now and cannot simply be achieved by meat or dairy restrictions.
Supporting Healthy, Balanced Diets
For parents, educators, and policymakers, the takeaway is clear: meat and dairy play a vital role in keeping Scotland’s young people healthy. Rather than removing these foods, the focus should be on encouraging balance, variety, and quality ensuring children eat enough fruit, vegetables, and whole grains alongside nutrient-rich meat.
As the debate around sustainable diets continues, this research is a timely reminder that good nutrition starts with balance, not restriction and that meat continues to be an important part of that equation for growing children.
SAMW’s 2025 conference attracted a strong line-up of speakers and sponsors, enabling members and guests to embrace a range of key issues from how to boost livestock numbers to the impact of weight loss drugs on meat demand and the challenge of net zero farming.
(l-r) Robert Neill, Alan Brown, Andrew Niven & Prof. John Gilliland
Association president, Alan Brown, set the tone for the conference debate with his ‘Grow Baby Grow’ challenge to the nation’s political leaders (as reported in our news section).
No commitment on cow numbers
Jim Fairlie, Scotland’s Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity, who joined the conference via video link, assured delegates of his support for the industry, describing the red meat sector as being vital to the country’s economy.
Telling the conference audience that he wanted to work to make sure the country’s red meat industry has a sustainable future, Fairlie added that he had ‘no policy to reduce livestock numbers in Scotland’.
Conference delegates
When challenged during a question session on his presentation that his comments amounted to ‘hollow words’, the Minister said he disagreed with such a charge.
Asked to support a call to restore Scottish livestock numbers to 2020 levels, however, the Minister declined to do so, stating that it wasn’t the government’s job to say ‘keep more cows’.
More cows for me
NFU Scotland, vice president, Robert Neill, assured meat processing listeners that he for one was committed to increasing cow numbers on the family farm in the Scottish Borders, a message that went down well with delegates.
Weight loss drugs and meat demand
Andrew Niven from Scotland Food & Drink’s Knowledge Bank delivered a detailed assessment of how meat demand might be impacted by the developing use of weight loss drugs. (A full report on his presentation is being prepared).
Net Zero challenge and success
Professor John Gilliland, a willow and livestock farmer from Northern Ireland, told delegates about his own successful journey to ‘Beyond net zero’, urging the UK to ‘get its act together’ on net zero livestock production.
A special adviser to Quality Meat Scotland and the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, Prof Gilliland left the conference audience in no doubt that there is plenty of room for positivity in the future management of net zero in farming. (A full report on this presentation is also being prepared).
Sponsors
Finally, a massive thanks to all our 2025 conference sponsors whose support for this important industry even is hugely appreciated:
Conference displays pictured below:
Thanks also to ABP who supplied dry aged sirloin joints for the conference lunch.
Deadline to enter – May 23
The 2025 Meat Industry Awards programme, staged each year by Meat Management magazine, is well underway, with the organisers reminding participants that the final deadline for product nominations is May 23.
The annual Awards is the UK’s biggest annual initiative of its kind and recognises the best of the best across various product categories, plus highlighting the leading people, trade bodies and companies via a voting and nomination process too.
Free entry for products is quick and easy, and businesses both large and small can nominate their products or vote in all 21 categories. The number of product nominations allowed in each category is unlimited, and products can also be nominated across multiple categories.
The judging periods will culminate in the 2025 ceremony, held at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole, near to the NEC, on Thursday evening 18th September. This year, celebrity magician and comedian Pete Firman will host the awards alongside Meat Management publisher Graham Yandell MBE.
Graham Yandell commented: “After such a positive response to our 2024 Meat Management Meat Industry Awards, we are seeing high volumes of product nominations and voting. This year’s initiative could well be our biggest yet.
Head Judge for product evaluations Keith Fisher of the IoM added: “Along with fellow judges I am looking forward to evaluating and tasting the diverse range of products that have been nominated. This is an ideal opportunity for companies to put their products on the map and to enhance branding and company image.
“The message is; make sure all your products are nominated by the deadline Friday 23rd May. It’s going to be another great year for judging products I’m sure.”
For more information about the 2025 Meat Management Meat Industry Awards, head to meatmanagement.com/awards or email Libby Goodwin on 01908 613323.
The 2025 New Year Lunch panel session addressed “The Future of Red Meat” during a well-attended annual event in Edinburgh on January 10. Panel members (pictured below) fielded a wide range of questions from SAMW members and guests with a key focus placed on this year’s projected livestock supplies and the urgent need arrest the continuing decline in numbers.
NYL panel: (l-r) Roisin Turner, Group Commercial Manager, Stoddart’s; John Sleigh, Editor, Scottish Farmer; Andrew Niven, Strategic Market Intelligence Manager, Scotland Food & Drink; and Orla Sherry, Kepak Technical Director, Meat Division UK.
Quality Meat Scotland highlights the economic potential of Scotland’s beef sector
Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) highlighted the economic potential of Scotland’s beef sector, current industry concerns and changes on cattle herd at the annual Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers (SAMW) conference and lunch on Friday 6 September 2024.
QMS Chief Executive, Sarah Millar and QMS Market Intelligence Manager, Iain Macdonald addressed the Scottish red meat processing industry at The Pavilion in Ingliston on the economic opportunities and challenges facing the Scottish beef herd.
Iain Macdonald said: “Our recently published Red Meat Industry Profile report highlights continued strong appetite for beef in Scotland, with an 8% increase in consumer spending on red meat and a rise in red meat processing turnover for a fourth consecutive year by 1% to £975 million. This popularity and the foreseeable demand from a growing UK population is set against a further reduction in the suckler herd, with beef cow numbers down by 2.5% year-on-year in December 2023 and an annual fall in calf registrations of 2.7%, which will have a knock-on effect to prime beef output once these cattle reach slaughter age in 2025.
“We have developed a projections model which shows that if action was taken in three areas of performance – stabilising the beef herd against the long-term downwards trend, boosting productivity of the breeding herd and slowing the outflow of prime cattle to England and Wales – the projected decline based on existing trends could be reversed with potential to generate a significant boost to the Scottish economy.”
The growth scenario includes an extra £76.6 million of output and £17.5 million of GVA added to the Scottish economy through the prime beef sector in 2030 compared to 2023. In addition, output is £143.1 million higher and GVA £36.1 million higher in this growth model when compared against the 2030 baseline scenario. As well as beef production on Scotland’s farms and in its processing sector, this modelling accounts for the additional supply chain effects which help underpin the economic vitality and social fabric of Scotland’s rural communities.
Sarah Millar said: “We are proud to support this crucial conference, which brings together key players across Scotland’s red meat processing sector.
“Scotland’s iconic beef sector is at the heart of Scottish agriculture and food and drink manufacturing, adding economic value across almost every constituency. Our model highlights significant economic opportunities for the Scottish red meat sector which has a positive impact that ripples through our society.
“We must collectively rally to halt, reverse and improve current trajectories which show a further reduction in the number of Scottish-born cattle if underlying trends were to continue. QMS is working closely with key stakeholders from across the red meat supply chain on action to boost productivity and support the case for systemic change for the sector and those industries and communities which rely on its success.”
In addition, QMS shared the initial tranche of results from research it has been undertaking into farmer decision making, further exploring some of the ‘why’s’ behind recent changes in the beef herd.
These findings demonstrate that there is no one single reason across the country that is impacting on suckler herd decline, with a mix of concerns being profitability levels, an aging workforce, availability of labour and confidence in agricultural support payments. Additional factors included increased administrative costs and movements into other sectors such as sheep, dairy and arable farming.
The top factors influencing the cohort which stopped farming were availability of labour and input costs, and, for the cohort which decreased their herd size, profitability was ranked as the main reason.
Sarah Millar also updated the industry audience on QMS’s five-year strategy to 2028 to make Scotland the choice for premium red meat.
By Alistair Donaldson
Neil was a hugely respected stalwart of the meat industry, a point strongly endorsed by the fulsome comments I have received in recent days. Many have said he was always such a supportive and trusted friend. Not only did he build a very successful business in a trade notorious for its meagre profit margins, but he also made a major contribution to meat industry ‘politics’.
Initially this was via SAMW and MLC, of which he was a Commissioner (2002-2008), then latterly with Scotland Food and Drink. He was also closely involved in the formation of Quality Meat Scotland.
I had the privilege of working with him over many years having first met him in the early ‘80s in the auction ring at Bosomworths – when he and Jim Robertson (SAMW President 1987-89) were vying with each other to buy cattle!
We worked closely on the two key crises that hit the industry in the 1990s and 2000s, namely BSE, with both its immediate and long-term impact, and FMD, which was equally devastating for farmers and meat processors.
It was when I became SAMW Executive Manager during Neil’s Presidency (2000-2003) that we really developed our working relationship. SAMW’s ability to punch above its weight, becoming a ‘go to’ organisation in the face of many national and international pressures was, in no small measure, due to Neil’s clear, direct and insightful views. He never shied away from stating what needed to be said, a strength which earned the Association respect in the corridors of power in Edinburgh, London and Brussels.
Away from the serious side of the industry there were numerous enjoyable lighter moments, of course, often created by Neil’s pawky sense of humour. Following a particularly sticky meeting in Brussels, for example, the SAMW team was ‘regrouping’ over a couple of beers in airport departures when Isla Roebuck and I decided that Neil’s sterling efforts that day were worthy of the title ‘Lord Pathheid’ of that ilk. The award was duly bestowed and recorded on the back of a Leif Blonde beer mat.
A somewhat greater honour came his way in 2009 when he was awarded an OBE for his ‘distinguished services to the meat industry’. He duly told a local news reporter that he was ‘chuffed to bits’ by the award, a feeling which no doubt also accompanied the FRAgS recognition he was given by his peers in the industry.
I was personally delighted to nominate him as a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Butchers, a body of which he became a staunch supporter and an enthusiastic and popular attendee of Court Lunches.
He was in truth a ‘man o’ pairts’ to whom the industry owes a huge gratitude. He will be sorely missed by all of us.
Our thoughts are with his beloved Lyndsey and hugely cherished daughters Kate, Louise and Carol, son-in-law James and grandson Max.
It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Neil Stoddart OBE, a former president of the Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers (SAMW) and a leading figure across many other Scottish and UK farming organisations.
Neil, who led the Broxburn-based meat business, AK Stoddart, through a sustained period of expansion prior to his retirement as owner in 2015, happily referred to himself thereafter as a farmer. Awarded an OBE in 2009 for his ‘distinguished services to the meat industry’ Neil was also on the board of Quality Meat Scotland, alongside taking roles within Scotland Food & Drink, the Meat & Livestock Commission and as a member of the Worshipful Company of Butchers.
Always providing a clear voice within the red meat industry, Neil will be sadly missed by his former SAMW colleagues and by all others who joined him during many committee meetings and industry-based social gatherings.
SAMW’s Executive team and members express their sadness and deep condolence to Neil’s wife Lyndsey and his family.
The Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers will hold its annual conference and lunch on Friday, 6 September, at The Pavilion, Ingliston, Edinburgh.
This is a crucial gathering for Scottish red meat processing, bringing the industry together to discuss the current state of the industry, the challenges it faces, and the opportunities that lie ahead.
The success of this event is made possible by generous sponsorship from leading companies within the red meat industry. Their support not only underscores their commitment to the growth and sustainability of the Scottish red meat sector but also enhances the quality and reach of the conference.
We are proud to acknowledge the sponsors for this year’s event, whose contributions ensure its continued success. This year’s sponsors are:
We find ourselves at a pivotal moment regarding the impending increase in FSS meat industry charge rates for the fiscal year 2024/25. The 20% surge in the Official Veterinarian (OV) rate and the 17% hike in the Meat Hygiene Inspector (MHI) rate pose significant challenges to our industry given the current economic climate within which it is operating.
In our recent dialogue with Jenni Minto, Minister for Public Health, we outlined three primary requests:
While FSS has furnished us with a more detailed breakdown of the costs comprising the 2024/25 charge rates, the unresolved issue of the Ministerial discount persists. As the first invoices will soon be issued, we have once again reached out to the Minister, urgently urging a delay in the implementation of these new charge rates.
Considering that a significant portion of the rise in this year’s charge rates can be attributed to Scottish Government policies, including the forthcoming implementation of the 35-hour workweek from October 1st, 2024, and the pay award increases spanning from 2023 to 2025, it’s important to recognise that these factors are beyond the control of our industry. As they do not mirror the commercial realities within meat plants, it becomes imperative to seek additional support through this year’s Ministerial discount funding.
In the face of escalating costs, our customers rightfully expect us to explore every avenue to mitigate these increases through cost-saving measures. We maintain steadfastly that any cost escalations in FSS charge rates should be met with corresponding efforts to offset them. It is our firm conviction that the burden of increased costs for official controls should not unilaterally fall upon the industry without exhaustive exploration of all operational adjustments to mitigate these escalations. As it stands many plants may simply not pay the increase when faced with the invoices calculated at the new charge rates.
SAMW continue to collaborate with FSS, offering insights and potential strategies that could alleviate the industry’s burden. As we navigate this challenge, we remain committed to advocating for a sustainable future for our sector.
By Scott Walker
At the request of the Scottish Government, Food Standards Scotland (FSS), in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, modelled the impact of decreasing meat and dairy consumption on the nation’s intake of essential nutrients. This study was prompted by the Climate Change Committee’s suggestion for the Scottish Government to promote a 20% reduction in meat consumption by 2030, increasing to 35% by 2050.
Yet, amidst calls for reduced meat consumption to mitigate climate change, FSS issues a cautionary note. They emphasise that a blanket reduction in meat and dairy consumption could exacerbate existing micronutrient deficiencies, particularly among those already with low intakes. Therefore, their advice regarding the consumption of red and processed meats remains unchanged.
The findings of the research underline the importance of a well-rounded diet that includes Scottish red meat. The research conducted by Food Standards Scotland and the University of Edinburgh indicates the necessity of finding a balance between climate objectives and maintaining people’s health and nutrition. Red meat serves as a significant source of vital nutrients crucial for overall health, including iron and selenium for immune function, B vitamins for energy, zinc for children’s growth, and vitamin D for bone density.
Issuing a blanket public health recommendation to decrease meat consumption could disproportionately affect the nutrient intake of women and girls, many of whom already struggle to meet dietary recommendations. In Scotland, average consumption of red meat now falls below the recommended daily limit of 70g set by government experts, with women showing lower consumption than men. This suggests that most individuals are already consuming an appropriate amount of red meat for their health and well-being.
So, what’s the takeaway from this debate? Moderation is key. Incorporating Scotch Beef, Scotch Lamb, and Specially Selected Pork into a diet alongside other nutritious options, red meat remains an integral part of a healthy eating plan.
Scotland is renowned as one of the most sustainable regions for producing high-quality, nutritious red meat. Farmers consistently operate in harmony with the environment, particularly within the beef supply chain, actively working to reduce emissions in accordance with government policies. Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) supports Food Standards Scotland’s aim of encouraging adherence to the official Scottish Dietary Goals. Red meat can be a component of a healthy, balanced diet, especially when consumers opt for brands such as Scotch Beef, Scotch Lamb, and Specially Selected Pork, which adhere to evidence-based welfare and environmental standards.
Rather than setting targets for reduced meat consumption solely to address climate change, there should be a concerted effort to achieve all of the Scottish Dietary Goals and support a greater number of people in adopting the Eatwell Guide dietary recommendations.
T: 07768 654955 E: scott.walker@scconsultancy.uk
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