Eating venison once a week should be encouraged, MSPs told

Scots should be encouraged to eat venison once a week, while the meat should also be served up in schools, hospitals and prisons, MSPs have been told.

Dick Playfair, secretary of the Scottish Venison Association, told Holyrood’s Rural Affairs Committee on Wednesday about the importance of “incentivising the venison sector”.

He said venison is an “exceptionally healthy red meat”, and told of efforts to get it on to the menu in the public sector.

It comes after business Wild Jura won a contract to supply Argyll and Bute Council with the meat for school lunches – with this being seen as a way of cutting down food miles.

Mr Playfair said the Scottish Venison Association is “working really hard” to win more contracts with public bodies such as schools and hospitals.

He was speaking as MSPs consider deer management issues as part of the Scottish Government’s Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill.

Mr Playfair said those involved in deer management are “ultimately” part of the food business.

He also stressed the importance of “incentivising the venison sector”, saying pilot projects at the moment are “geared to shooting more deer and getting a payment for it”.

He said the system should instead be “geared to the venison going into the food chain and not to the carcasses hitting the ground”.

Tom Turnbull of the Association of Deer Management Groups, meanwhile, told the MSPs: “We need to normalise venison, and make sure it is going into our schools and hospitals.”

Saying getting produce into the public sector is “vital”, he added: “We need to be encouraging people to eat venison once a week, I think that is something the whole sector can get on board with.”

Duncan Orr-Ewing, of the Link Deer Group which is part of Scottish Environment Link, also stressed the importance of supplying the public sector.

He told the committee: “The public procurement side could be very helpful here, hospitals, schools, prisons, in terms of supplying venison.”

Being able to provide a “regular supply” of the meat to such bodies would “provide some underpinning for the sector”, he added.