Funding from the Scottish Government to support Food and Drink Federation (FDF) Scotland’s health programme has been approved for another year.

The Reformulation for Health Programme was set up in 2019 by FDF Scotland with the aim of helping small to medium-size food companies make changes to their product recipes to improve dietary health.

During a visit to Scottish butchery manufacturer Malcolm Allan, Public Health Minister Jenni Minto MSP announced that the Scottish Government has provided a further year’s funding for the FDF Scotland programme. The MSP had the opportunity to see Malcolm Allan’s Lorne sausages and steak pies being made, and heard about the company’s successful projects to make its food healthier.

Joanne Burns, FDF Scotland’s Reformulation for Health manager, said: “We are delighted to receive another year’s funding from the Scottish Government, allowing us to support more Scottish food and drink businesses to make their food healthier, from butchers and bakers to ready meal makers.

“Well done to Malcolm Allan on its successful reformulation project, which highlights how reformulation can help grow your business and meet retailer and consumer demands for healthier products. This, along with many other businesses we have supported this year, will have a massive impact on improving the health of Scotland’s products and people.”

Reducing salt and fat

Malcolm Allan benefitted from support from the Reformulation for Health Programme and £5,000 funding from its Reformul8 Challenge Fund. The funds went towards laboratory testing, one of the costs that can be associated with reformulation.

Paul Terris, new product development manager at Malcolm Allan and Macsween of Edinburgh, commented: “Malcolm Allan was delighted to receive funding from FDF Scotland to reduce the salt, fat, and calories in one of our popular Lorne sausages.

“The project was very successful – the Lorne sausage now contains 42% less salt, the fat has been reduced from 20% to 2.2%, and the calorie content has reduced by 55%.

“We sell 54% of all Scotland’s Lorne sausage, producing an average of 50 tonnes of sausage each week. We are now excited to see how the learnings from this project can be expanded to other product ranges.”

“By funding the Reformulation for Health Programme, we are helping remove billions of calories from food and drink.”

Public Health Minister Jenni Minto added: “I congratulate Malcolm Allan on reformulating popular recipes to make them healthier, setting an example to manufacturers across Scotland. Businesses like this have made enormous progress in reducing the amount of fat, sugar, or salt in the products in our supermarkets and restaurants.

“By funding the Reformulation for Health Programme, we are helping remove billions of calories from food and drink and enabling long term improvements to people’s diets.”