Eating more offal could go a long way to reducing food waste - James Macsween

It’s no secret that our planet is on the brink of catastrophic consequences if we don’t adapt our lifestyles. Food waste is a big part of the problem, with figures from Zero Waste Scotland revealing that Scots can throw away as much as 987,890 tonnes of valuable produce in just one year.

James Macsween, Managing Director of Macsween of Edinburgh

We can all play our part to change this, including businesses like mine in the food sector. Whilst our plant based products are becoming increasingly popular, our meat products still make up a majority of our business under our haggis and black pudding ranges.

Most people know Macsween of Edinburgh for its world-famous haggis, which itself was born out of sustainability. With roots going back thousands of years, hunters would use up the parts of the animal that needed to be eaten first by cooking offal with cereal and herbs. The same is true for black pudding, which is often associated with Stornoway crofters who knew it was in their best interests to use every part of their animals to prevent food waste.

We have a core responsibility both as meat producers and consumers to throw less away. One recent study revealed that by eating more offal, meat eaters could help to reduce livestock emissions by 14% as less animals need to be reared overall. Each animal is of huge value and if we are not making the most of meat produced, we are doing a disservice to ourselves, the planet and the animal.

Offal has long been a part of the human diet and has been praised by scientists for its nutritional properties as its vitamins, minerals and proteins exceed the nutritional properties of more ‘traditional’ meat products. Even looking back to WWII, liver and kidney were staple ingredients in day to day life. But this all changed as convenience became king and our options became greater. Meat eaters developed a taste for lean muscle, meaning that the offal would be discarded, leading to mass waste of perfectly good food. Well-known chefs such as Hugh-Fearnley Whittingstall have also championed the use of offal through the years, not just because it's a more respectful approach to meat eating, but because ‘if it's flavour and texture you're after, you can't beat kidneys, or tongue, or liver, or brain’.

The Scottish meat sector’s green credentials are better than many would think. Macsween of Edinburgh have made great strides in ensuring production is sustainable through all stages of the supply chain; we champion the use of local meat, ensure our packaging is recyclable, and have adapted the size of our products based on consumer insights. Our haggis is still made to my grandfather’s recipe and as well as our environmental conscious, we pride ourselves on creating the most natural and delicious haggis on the market to be enjoyed all year round.

It’s time that we reframe the way we think about meat and consider how we can eat it more sustainably, but also be open minded about the offal truth that it is flavoursome too.

What matters most, is that we value our precious food enough not to let it go to waste.

James Macsween, Managing Director of Macsween of Edinburgh