Seventeen Scottish food and drink companies have been awarded a share of £160,000 funding for sustainable projects as part of an industry-wide commitment to net zero.

Primary producers, manufacturers and hospitality businesses were among funding recipients with projects involving eight different academic institutions.

Aiming to encourage businesses to take action on their environmental impacts in a meaningful way, the initiative asks the selected companies to partner with experts and academics in engineering, manufacturing, biotechnology and data science.

The grants were awarded by the Scottish Food and Drink Net Zero Challenge Fund. Launched by Scotland Food and Drink Partnership and Interface in October 2021, the Net Zero Challenge Fund is an initiative of the Scottish government-backed industry Recovery Plan.

Working together

David Thomson, chief executive officer at Food and Drink Federation Scotland, added: “It is vital that the whole supply chain works together to deliver net zero food and drink products on our supermarket shelves. I was delighted to chair the Scotland Food and Drink net zero taskforce which set out our industry’s ambition to work together to achieve that.

“Food and drink businesses across Scotland want to play their part – funding initiatives like this are a great start to helping businesses on their journey to net zero.”  

For the full list of award recipients, visit the Food and Drink Federation website.