Gold Awards for Peebles butchers

Callum and Louise Forsyth, Butchers, Peebles, won two gold and one silver prizes at the Scotch Lamb Innovation Awards 2016

The couple, who run W T S Forsyth and Sons butchers, were among the finalists of a new Scotch Lamb PGI initiative announced by Quality Meat Scotland.

The awards, which were launched as part of Quality Meat Scotland’s 2015 Wham Bam Thank You Lamb campaign, aim to showcase quality, innovative Scotch Lamb products and burgers which have been created by Scotch Butchers Club members to meet changing consumer demand.

Callum and Louise said they were absolutely delighted to have won, being recognised for their Morroccan lamb burger, lamb tagine and lamb curry.

“Burgers and innovative products are becoming an increasingly important part of our business and are proving extremely popular with our customers,” said Callum.

“We provide a traditional, quality service but always try to develop on new opportunities in order to offer our customers something a bit different.

Mrs Forsyth added: “I’m a big fan of Scotch Lamb, and it sells well in the shop, so I thought I’d enter the Lamb Tagine which is part of our new range – I’m delighted it’s won a gold award!”

All the burgers and products were subject to a rigorous two-stage judging process, by a panel consisting of members of the Scottish red meat industry and the public, and were reviewed on taste as well as how simple they were to cook quickly by busy young professionals with children – a key target market for QMS’s Scotch Lamb.

Graeme Sharp, QMS Marketing Executive said that the awards really showcased the innovation which exists in the Scottish butchers sector.

“The standard of entries we received was exceptionally high and you could see that each butcher had a tremendous amount of pride for their burgers and products.”