Consumer testing carried out by Consumer Panel Elite and England Marketing on behalf of Seafood Scotland has compared haddock from Scotland, Norway, the Faroe Islands and Iceland – with Scotland coming out on top.
The research was carried out in February and June. In all of the blind tests, which used a number of different cooking methods, Scottish haddock was the preferred choice. Full results are awaited from the latest panel, but preliminary findings show Scotland as the clear winner in terms of taste and texture.
This is good news for Scottish fishermen, who are benefitting from an increase in quota this year of 4,480t, plus an additional 2,500t in species swaps with other countries.
The results will be used by Seafood Scotland to shape marketing effort in conjunction with Scottish processors. This will help industry to create greater awareness of the product amongst the retail, wholesale and fish and chip sectors.
Research findings also demonstrate that consumers associate salmon with Scotland but not haddock, and that they are aware of an issue with discards thanks to recent media interest. They also understand the need for product to be sustainable, but have little or no recall of third party labels such as MSC, and are confused over catch terms such as 'line caught'.
