Fury over ‘lamb in a toilet’ advert

By Andrew Arbuckle
Published on 20/03/2013 02:10

An ADVERTISING poster issued by the Food Standards agency which focuses around beautifully presented lamb chops photographed in the bottom of an urinal came under heavy criticism yesterday from sheep industry leaders.

National Sheep Association Scottish development officer George Milne described the advert as an “absolute disgrace”, adding it portrayed lamb in the worst possible way.

“Sheep farmers in the UK produce lamb to such an incredibly high standard – we have farm assurance inspections, full food-chain traceability, in-depth animal health and medicine records – and now we are faced with this photograph of lovely lamb cutlets in the bottom of a toilet,” he said

And Quality Meat Scotland chairman Jim McLaren said it was extremely disappointing that one of the images the Food Standards Agency had used was a red meat dish. He commented: “Our livestock producers work extremely hard to produce a product of a very high standard and to have it portrayed in this fashion is totally unacceptable.”

Last night a spokeswoman for the FSA said the farming organisations had completely missed the point. While admitting the advert did show some delicious looking lamb in a strange setting, the point was that this was about food establishments, not the food itself, she said. “You need to check hygiene standards when you’re eating out,” she said. “We trust the intelligence of the public on this one. We don’t think anyone will be put off eating lamb by this advert”.