Meat and Provenance

ScotPulse recently ran a survey on meat consumption and provenance among Scots in 2025, with some interesting results.

What did we ask?

1. How important is it to you that the meat you purchase and consume is produced in Scotland?
2. How important is food provenance to you for the meat you purchase?
3. How often do you buy meat from each of these sources?
4. Which are the biggest factors in your choice of where to buy meat from? 

Provenance

The majority of Scots - 72% - say it is important to them that the meat they purchase and consume in produced in Scotland. 39% said it is very important to them. Demographically, those aged over 65 and those in the North gave the highest scores of importance, while those aged 16-34 and those in the West gave the lowest.

In terms of simply provenance, 66% say that provenance - i.e. where food comes from - is important to them. 39% say it is very important.

Purchasing

98% of Scots have bought or buy meat from a supermarket. 69% say they do frequently or very frequently - by far the most common place of purchase. Second is independent butchers, which 84% have used, and 25% do frequently.

In third overall is farm shops, which 57% have used, but only 5% do frequently. In terms of frequent buying, local convenience stores are third, with 53% having bought meat from them before, and 7% doing so frequently.

Quality and price are most important

As can be seen in the chart above, price and quality are two of the most important factors for a majority of Scots in where to buy meat. 68% selected price as one of their three most important factors, while 57% selected quality.

Taste and flavour was third, with 44% of respondents placing it in their top three and fourth was source or origin, selected by 29%. Other commonly cited factors were ethical and animal welfare considerations (20%) and availability (17%).

Demographically, quality is most important in older age groups (55+) and males, whereas price is more important among under 35s, families, and C2DEs.  Source/origin is also chosen most by those aged over 55, and ethical/animal welfare concerns sees highest levels among females.