Haggis recipe could be 'tweaked' to get round US import ban on sheep lungs
Haggis makers plan to circumvent a longstanding ban on the import of sheep lungs
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Your support makes all the difference.Haggis makers may change the dish’s centuries-old recipe in the hope they can finally begin selling the delicacy in the United States.
They plan to circumvent a longstanding ban on the import of sheep lungs to America by simply finding a substitute ingredient.
Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for Food and Rural Affairs, Richard Lochhead, is currently touring America in an effort to drum up support for the reintroduction of haggis for the first time since it was banned in 1971.
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.”
Mr Lochhead is joined on his trip by James Macsween, from leading haggis maker Macsween, who told The National: “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.”
Online news site Scotland Now recently launched a petition against the US ban on haggis to be lifted, with more than 7,000 people having signed.
Not all haggis makers are so confident they could find a suitable replacement for the staple ingredient - Fraser Macgregor, from highlands haggis maker George Cockburn and Son, said: “If it does get overturned it will certainly be an immense opportunity for all the producers in Scotland.
“One of the staple ingredients of the haggis is obviously the lamb’s lungs – whether you can find a substitute for that I wouldn’t like to say.”
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