From farm, to farmers' market, to fork

Wednesday 6 February 2002

Consumers who plough a regular furrow to Scotland’s farmers’ markets can expect to reap a harvest of improved food-safety, following recommendations made by the Scottish Food Advisory Committee (SFAC).

In its review of farmers’ markets, the SFAC, which advises FSA Scotland, found that most consumers have few or no concerns about the safety of the food on sale. Farmers' markets are one of the country’s fastest growing food-retail sectors.

But the SFAC feels there is still scope for improvement in some areas of the markets’ operation, facilities and regulation, and the committee made a number of recommendations on how Food Standards Agency Scotland could implement the improvements.

Consumer satisfaction
Almost three quarters of consumers questioned at the markets (72%) said they shopped there because of the quality of the products sold. The next most popular reason was to support local farmers (31%).

Consumers’ overall satisfaction with farmers’ markets is exceptionally high. About 92% of them were very satisfied or quite satisfied with their visit to the market.

Such results suggest that the consumers have faith in the quality of the produce available at the markets, says the review, which was carried out during September-November 2001.
Other reasons given by consumers for purchasing food at farmers’ markets were perceptions that the food was organic and contained less pesticide (17%), the known origin of the food (12%), the food was fresher (10%) and the price of the food (9%).

About 60% of consumers said that they were satisfied with their visit to the market and a further 32% stated that they were quite satisfied.

Goods on sale
A wide variety of foods were found to be on sale through the markets, including fresh vegetables, fruit and meat, and a range of cooked produce including home-baking.

Most products sold at farmers' markets are of local origin. Many stallholders are located within 30 miles of their nearest market and over 75% travel less than 45 miles before setting up stall.

About 68% of the stallholders report foods as being produced ‘on the farm’, and 45% say they offer home-produced foods of foods processed or manufactured in self-owned premises. Most products were also of local origin, with many stallholders located within 30 miles of their local market.

Licensing
Information from stallholders indicates that about 44% were operating under Market Licences, Market Operators’ Licences or Street Traders’ Licences.

However, a significant proportion also held Food Premises’ Licences, Butchers’ Licences, Game Licences or other licences. About 18% said they had no licence.

• Recommendation: FSA Scotland should consider the requirements for licensing farmers’ markets (and other events where food is sold) with a view to seeking a consistent approach by local authorities.

Monitoring and inspection
Information supplied by local authorities (LAs) suggested that the farmers’ markets were subject to systematic and regular inspection, although the routines adopted varied from place to place. Some LAs monitor ‘every market’ while others do so only ‘occasionally’.

• Recommendation: FSA Scotland should issue a letter to local authorities advising them of the need to ensure the systematic inspection of farmers’ markets.

Food safety guidance
Most of the stallholders selling produce at the markets had received written information or advice on aspects of food hygiene, handling, storage packaging and labelling, although a few said they had been given no guidance.

About 61% of stallholders had received information from their LAs and 33% from the local enterprise companies (LECs), but 33% said that information from other market participants had been important.

The information and advice provided was generally regarded as ‘quite useful’ or ‘very useful’ although a small proportion of material from LAs or LECs (4-11%) was described as ‘not at all useful’.

• Recommendation: FSA Scotland should encourage local authorities and local enterprise companies to cooperate across Scotland to seek to ensure that standard advice and guidance documents are available to all stallholders.

Training
Over 80% of stallholders surveyed had received some food safety training and most of those held a recognised food safety qualification. The biggest single barrier to further training was said to be ‘not enough time’.

• Recommendation: FSA Scotland should continue to promote training for stallholders and their staff, either directly of via local authorities.

Labelling
There were mixed views about labelling at farmers’ markets among those consulted. The standards was generally regarded as good, but this view was not universal, even within particular sectors.

About three quarters of consumers questioned feel food labelling at farmers’ markets is similar to that provided for foods sold elsewhere; 7% think market labelling is worse and 16% think it is better.

The majority of local authority enforcement officers (65%) reported, for example, that labelling requirements were being met ‘always’, but 25% considered that requirements were not being met on occasions.

• Recommendation: FSA Scotland should write to local authorities and local enterprise companies advising them of the findings, and it should also consider the preparation of an advisory publication on labelling for stallholders at farmers’ markets.