Berry Scotland Programme About


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Last updated: 06 June, 2005

About the Berry Scotland Programme

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 every 2 months. The minutes from these meetings are freely available on request.

Last meeting: 7th June

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