The Berry Scotland Programme aims to increase the consumption of Scottish soft fruit in Scotland for the benefits of population health and the Scottish berry industry. Achievement of the programme's aims will be overseen by the Berry Scotland Board, a multi-sectoral group of experts from health, agriculture, land use, variety development, product development and marketing.
Berries have been found to contain higher levels of antioxidants than most other fruits and, being a Scottish crop, the health and economy of Scotland could be considerably improved if home grown strawberries, raspberries and blackcurrants become Scottish staple foods. In Scotland, levels of heart disease, stroke and cancer are among the highest in Europe and we hope that by promoting the health benefits of soft fruit, we can help increase the consumption of Scottish berries and improve the health of the Scottish population.
Aims:
- To increase the production, sales and consumption of Scottish soft fruits through an multi-sectoral coalition uniting health, agricultural and food industry interests.
- To facilitate the reduction of chronic diet related disease through helping the population to reach the target 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day.
- To
co-ordinate and promote investigation into the development of berries
and berry products.
Part of the programme will involve a review of the following health and rural affairs issues:
- Understanding the specific health properties relevant to Scottish berries.
- Understanding consumer influences on Scottish berry consumption.
- Assessing outlets for berry usage eg NHS and local authority.
- Identifying current production and demand.
- Reviewing current berry processing and how this might be further extended or diversified.
- In conjunction with Scottish Enterprise, identifying products that might be developed from Scottish berries and how these might be progressed to the test stage.
It is hoped also to identify research and development capacity within Scotland and to help facilitate new research with academic and industrial partners.
Board meetings are held several times a year. The minutes from these meetings are freely available on request.
The Board
The Berry Scotland board is a Scotland wide multi-sectoral group comprising experts from nutrition, land use, variety development, fruit production, product development, laboratory, clinical and public health. The role of the board is to develop and implement an action plan following a comprehensive review of health and rural affairs issues.
Professor Annie Anderson
Director and Professor of Food Choice at the Centre for
Public Health Nutrition Research, University of Dundee.
Prof Annie
Anderson, (BSc PhD SRD RPHN) graduated in 1979 as a dietitian and after
two years in clinical practice has pursued a research career with posts in
the Universities of Cambridge, Aberdeen, Glasgow and the MRC Medical
Sociology Unit. Research interests focus on factors that influence food
choice, dietary assessment methodology and the impact of dietary selection
on human health. Diet and health inequalities has been a major theme of
recent work and current research involves assessing the impact of dietary
interventions in studies of free living individuals. She is editor of The
Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics (Blackwell Science), an expert
member of the UK Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) and is
currently a member of the Scottish Executive expert panel on school
meals.
Contact details:
Prof Annie Anderson,
Centre for Public
Health Nutrition Research, Department of Medicine, University of Dundee,
Ninewells Hospital and Medical School, Dundee DD1 9SY.
Tel: 01382
496442 Fax: 01382 496452
email: a.s.anderson@dundee.ac.uk
Dr
James Dunbar
Dr James Dunbar is a founder member of the Berry
Scotland Programme.
Professor Mike Lean 
Professor of Human Nutrition and Head of Human Nutrition
Department at University of Glasgow.
Professor Lean
holds the position of Rank Chair of Human Nutrition at the University of
Glasgow where he is also a Consultant Physician at Glasgow Royal
Infirmary. He trained in medicine at the University of Cambridge and St
Bartholemew's.
His clinical training was mainly in Aberdeen but he
returned to Cambridge to join the scientific staff of the Medical Research
Council and University of Cambridge Dunn Nutrition Unit. Here he embarked
on a research career in nutrition, specialising in obesity and energy
balance and completed higher professional training in diabetes.
In 1992
he was appointed to his present position, teaching and directing research
into human nutrition. He maintains a full clinical input in General Acute
Medicine, Diabetes and in the Nutrition Support Team. He has increasingly
become involved in public health and health promotion measures to prevent
disease and promote good health through healthy eating. In 1995 he was
appointed to the Health Education board for Scotland.
Contact
details:
Prof Mike Lean,
Human Nutrition Department, Queen Elizabeth
Building, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Glasgow G31 2ER
Tel:0141 2114686
Fax: 0141 2114844
email: mejl1g@clinmed.gla.ac.uk
Andrew Logan
Soft
Fruit Grower and Chairman of Scotfruit.
Andrew Logan
has over 30 years experience in the fruit and vegetable industry. In the
early 1970s he was the chairman of the soft fruit and vegetable committee
of the National Farmers Union (Scotland). He was then instrumental in
setting up a co-operative allowing the Kingdom of Fife to become a major
vegetable producer. His current enterprise is with Scotfruit, an
innovative and forward thinking company dedicated to supplying
supermarkets and specialist fruit manufacturers with fresh and frozen
quality Scottish soft fruit. Scotfruit has also been involved in creating
one of the first Producer Organisations dedicated to fruit in Scotland
(Berry Growers Ltd). The key objectives of Berry Growers Ltd include
improving product quality and safety, consolidated marketing and season
extension and improving the environment.
Contact details:
Andrew
Logan
Tel 01334 652941
email: a.logan@btconnect.com
Ronnie McNicol
Independant Scientific Consultant, Breeder and Propagator.
Ronnie McNicol
has 28 years experience working with soft fruit. He was head of fruit
research at the Scottish Crop Research Institute and managing director of
ReDeva, concentrating on producing soft fruit varieties which have good
eating quality and high levels of antioxidants. Ronnie is now an
independent consultant for the soft fruit industry.
Contact
details:
Ronnie McNicol,
Tel: 01382 561251
email:
greenhill.propagation@btinternet.com
Ewan Pate 
Soft
Fruit Grower and Director of Saltire Fruits
Ewan Pate
has 30 years experience in growing raspberries. He was chairman of the
Scottish Soft Fruit Discussion Society and then National Farmers Union
(Scotland) soft fruit convenor. Latterly he was chairman of Scottish Soft
Fruit Growers and is director of Saltire Fruits, a company specialising in
producing chilled raspberry pulp for the processing industry. Ewan is also
farming correspondent for The Courier and Advertiser newpaper.
Contact
details:
Ewan Pate,
Tel: 01382 504637
email:
ewan.pate@virgin.net
Anne Thomson 
Marketing
Consultant, Gallagher Associates and Managing Director, Ella Drinks
Having worked
for an American advertising agency in London on well known brands and then
for Shell UK in market research and retail in both London and Glasgow she
has seen how big companies develop brands. Coming back to Scotland in 1987
allowed her to work with the Scottish food and drink industry and other
commercial sectors as a consultant in product development and market
research.
Her interest is in helping the primary produce sectors, in
which Scotland excels, to develop added value products with value added
here in Scotland and which allow such produce to freature in the diets of
the UK consumer. This will bring many benefits for the Scottish economy,
including the provision of jobs which bring knowledge skills north of the
border. As a farmer's daughter from Angus she feels that farming needs to
be in touch with what consumer markets seek and be driven more by the
market rather than by subsidies or big business. This in the long term
would give farms more control over their businesses and lead to stronger
rural development.
Contact Details:
Anne Thomson
Tel: 01356
623115
email: info@bouvrage.com
.
Berry Scotland Advisory
Group
An advisory group has also been set up to give guidance
to the programme board and the scientific co-ordinator on certain issues.
Members of the advisory group include:
- Dr Rex Brennan Scottish Crop Research Institute
- Allene Bruce Scottish Enterprise
- Dr Garry Duthie Rowett Research Institute
- Alan Stevenson Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society Ltd
- Vivien Collie, Marketing Consultant