Leith butcher reduces salt content of sausages by 21%

Established in 1908, George Bowman Butchers is a traditional local butchers based in the Leith area of Edinburgh. Bowman Butchers sell typical butchery products but are relatively unique in that they make their own seasonings for some of the products they sell.

Summary
The sausages are now compliant with Food Standards Agency Scotland (FSAS) 2010 Salt Target of 1.4g or less sodium per 100g of finished product.
Bowman's now hope to carry out further reductions to make products compliant with the FSAS 2012 Salt Targets.

Results and impact
The work to date has resulted in a 21% salt reduction for the pork sausage and pork and tomato sausage. Reformulation work has also been carried out on the red pudding recipe to successfully reduce a similar amount of salt which has also had no negative impact on sales of this product.

Where the project is delivered
Bowman butchers is a popular independent butcher based in the Leith area of Edinburgh. The business is a typical traditional Scottish butchers serving a large loyal customer base at its one shop.

Background
Gillian Campbell, a 4th year nutrition student from Robert Gordon University completed a 3-month internship with SFDF as part of the Reformulation Programme. When SFDF's Industry Technical Manager, Chris Peace and Gillian met with the owner Mr Bowman he was very interested in the programme and the free hands-on assistance it offers. He realised that by reformulating popular products he would gain a competitive edge in the market and possibly attract additional health conscious customers.

Process
As part of her internship assisting with the Reformulation Programme, Gillian worked alongside Mr Bowman to review the recipes of the company's most popular products. It was decided to start reformulation on the sausage range as these are the top selling products and would have the largest impact, with many thousands of sausages sold annually.

What's next?
Following on from this success, Bowman's are interested in making further reductions to the sausage salt content to achieve the 2012 FSAS Salt Target of 1.13g salt per 100g of finished product. The company is also carrying out step by step reductions to the pork slicing sausage with the aim of reaching the FSAS 2010 Salt Target.

Business comment
Customer awareness of health issues concerning food products has encouraged us to implement advice on reducing the salt content in our products. The free-of-charge assistance from SFDF's Scottish Government (Health) funded Reformulation Programme has been integral in achieving this positive outcome without the loss of quality or sales. We are keen to work with Chris going forward and would recommend other food businesses to take up this assistance.