Members Update – 2nd December 2022

Membership Fees 2023
Going forward, as the country tries to recover from economic difficulties.
It is our intention to hold the trade fair on Sunday 14th May 2023 at the Dewar's Ice rink, this is provisionally booked. We will hold the Butcher's Wars competition as well as a revamped “World Haggis Championship”. The Pork Sausage Championship will also be held in Perth on that day. We will also hold “Make it with Haggis” and “Speciality Burger” evaluations on 5th April 2023, announcing the results on the day of the trade fair.

Our operating costs with the Trade Fair are likely to see an increase since it was last held in 2019 it is also clear that if we intend to continue to offer the same level of services then we require to keep a close eye on income and expenditure until we see how the recovery pans out and we will play our part in that on behalf of our members.

However, energy costs, travel costs and operating costs are, like every business, increasing going forward into the new financial year.

We believe that an increase in membership fees at this time would not be beneficial to the members. The Annual General Meeting passed the motion not to increase fees from the current level in 2023.

We will continue to explore all possible opportunities to grow the membership and corporate membership and that we try and cut costs where possible.

The finance committee are of the opinion that £340 per year for member shops and £105 per branch shop represents good value and works out at less than £1.00 per day which, given the amount of information and guidance issued to all our members over the last 12 months, is a small price to pay for this level of service to be maintained throughout the changing months and years ahead.

There is no proposal to increase the corporate membership fee. The corporate members always fully support us in our evaluations and events such as the trade fair, Butcher Wars and other competitions.

Food Hygiene Information Scheme – Communication with consumers survey

Dear Gordon,

You might remember at the SFELC meeting on 7 October I presented an update on a social science project we are doing at FSS looking into the Food Hygiene Information Scheme and scoping the experiences and perceptions of food business' on how inspection information is communicated to consumers.

As part of this I have developed an online survey which we will invite food businesses who are in scope for FHIS to complete, likely in early January. At the SFELC meeting you expressed that you might be able to help me test this survey with a couple of food businesses. We are looking to have a couple of food businesses complete the online survey and supply some feedback over the next two weeks (e.g. if the survey works, if there are any questions that aren't clear, if there is anything they think is missing etc.). Would you be able to share this with a couple of your members to do this? The test survey expires on Monday 12th December to allow us enough time to make any necessary changes before it goes live in January.

The test survey link is available here: Click for the test survery

If you can find some members to complete this they can send any feedback they have directly to me ([email protected] or 07823422918) or I would be happy to receive feedback through you if that's easier.

Happy to talk through and provide more detail if needed, if not I look forward to receiving some feedback and refining the survey.

Many thanks in advance,
Emma.

Dr Emma McGeough (she/her)
Analyst – Social science
Food Standards Scotland
07823422918
[email protected]
www.foodstandards.gov.uk

Local Authority Food Sampling in Scotland – Annual Report 2021/22

The Food Protection Science and Surveillance branch of Food Standards Scotland has finalised the annual Local Authority Food Sampling in Scotland report covering the period 1st July 2021 and 30th June 2022. The report presents analyses of data collected on the Scottish Food Sampling Database (SFSD) of food sampling activities undertaken by Scottish LAs and results of microbiological examination, chemical analysis and substitution tested conducted by four Scottish Official Laboratories.

During the reporting period 3276 samples were collected, which represents an increase of 25% compared to the number recorded during the same period in 2020/21. There was an increase in the percentage of unsatisfactory results in all testing categories: microbiological (1%), substitution (2%) chemical (3%) and labelling (5%).

Manufacturers/processors were the most commonly sampled premises type (39% of samples) closely followed by retailers (38%). It is worth noting that sampling at manufacturers/processors doubled in this reporting period (from 21% in the 2020/21 to 39% in 2021/22), while there continues to be a reduction in restaurant sampling in 2020/21 in comparison to pre-pandemic times.

Restaurants and other caterers have the highest rate of unsatisfactory results, with 18% unsatisfactory chemical samples and 17% unsatisfactory microbiological samples, followed by the manufacturers/processors with 18% unsatisfactory chemical samples and 8% unsatisfactory microbiological samples, and retailers, with 10% unsatisfactory chemical samples and 9% unsatisfactory microbiological samples.

If you have any comments on the report, please let us know.

Attachments:

• Local_Authority_Food_Sampling_in_Scotland_-_Annual_Report_2021-22_FINAL.pdf