HAGGIS makers could “tweak” the recipe for the famous Scottish delicacy in a bid to get round a decades-old ban on selling it in America because it contains sheep lungs, according to Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for Food and Rural Affairs.
Richard Lochhead is in the US and Canada this week to promote Scottish food and drink and as part of his tour he will be raising the issue of America’s import ban on haggis, which has been in place since 1971.
Lochhead, who will be accompanied by James Macsween, the director of haggis maker Macsween of Edinburgh, for part of the trip, said if the product could be sold in the US it could help boost Scotland’s economy.
He said: “Opening up the US market to haggis will allow the tens of millions of Americans who claim Scottish ancestry and want to enjoy Scotland’s national dish to celebrate their heritage.
“The North America market is extremely important to Scotland’s food and drinks companies and our exports have been growing in recent years as more and more Americans want to enjoy Scotland’s larder.
“Now it may be that we’d have to tweak the recipe for haggis to get into the US market, because some of the ingredients – such as sheep lungs – have been banned since 1971.
“But I think our own producers here in Scotland are up for tweaking the recipe so that US customers can still get as close as possible to the real thing.
“And if we managed to get into that market that would create jobs back here in Scotland and millions of pounds to the Scottish economy.”
Fraser Macgregor, of haggis maker George Cockburn and Son in Dingwall in the Highlands, said if the US lifted the ban on haggis it would open new export doors for producers.
He added: “If it does get overturned it will certainly be an immense opportunity for all the producers in Scotland.”
However, Macgregor said it could be difficult to find a replacement for lambs lungs and the reason for using the ingredient was that it gives haggis its “rich flavour”.
“One of the staple ingredients of the haggis is obviously the lambs lungs – whether you can find a substitute for that I wouldn’t like to say," he said.
"If that is the only criteria to get haggis in we could maybe look at a substitute and see what happens then."
Lochhead’s trip comes a week after Scotland Now launched a campaign and online petition to lift the US import ban on Scots-made haggis.
Within days, thousands of people on both sides of the Atlantic had signed the petition.
Earlier this year the US relaxed the import restrictions on Scottish beef that were imposed in the 1990s during the BSE crisis and lamb is expected to follow, but sheep lung may remain outlawed.
However, Lochhead is keen to make headway on the 45-year-old ban on haggis during Scotland’s Year of Food and Drink.
He added: “I’ll be rallying support for the ban on haggis to be lifted. While there has been a ban on sheep lungs for 45 years, our producers are ready to make haggis specifically for the US market without lung.”
Macsween is joining the Cabinet Secretary on his trip, which takes in Montreal and Quebec City, then New York, Washington and Baltimore.
He will argue the case for a new Scottish-made haggis recipe that conforms to US food standards.
Macsween said: “We’ve started playing around with a reformulated haggis.
“It’s still tasty, spicy and goes great with neeps and tatties but we’ve taken lung out.
“I’m really hopeful it will finally result in Scottish-made haggis in the US.”
Douglas Scott, of the Scottish Federation of Meat Traders’
Associations, said lifting the ban would allow Scottish butchers to finally satisfy the many requests to send haggis to customers’ relatives across the Atlantic.
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