THERE is a direct link between the decrease of seafood in the diet and the rise in mental ill health and heart disease, according to keynote speaker Dr Michael Crawford, a leading expert on human nutrition. Dr Crawford told delegates that marine lipids played a key role in brain development in evolution terms. He said the brain still depends on the same marine nutrients today for growth and development, adding that the marine food chain is by far the richest source of these.

Meanwhile, he supported findings that contradict the Food Standards Agency and the US Food and Drug Administration’s advice to pregnant mothers to eat seafood no more than twice a week. Dr Crawford said this advice was counter-productive rather than beneficial.

Referring to the fact that during the 1800s large sectors of the Scottish population ate a diet rich in herring or salmon, he said: “My interpretation of the demise of herring is that, having lost this tradition, I would certainly say from the evidence we have today that this has been a major factor in the rise in mental ill health.”

He added that Scotland is now one of the worst countries for cardio-vascular disease. He said he wouldn’t be surprised if it also scored highly in terms of mental health disease.

Chairman of the Association of Scottish Shellfish Growers, Skye-based Doug McLeod warned that the market for molluscs in the UK must expand to head off price reduction in the raw material. But producers were faced with the major challenge of creating a new marketing strategy to offset negative perceptions and which would underline the health advantages of eating more mussels and oysters.

At present there was a problem, underlined in a Seafish study, that the majority of consumers did not trust the product.

He also believed that oysters and mussels, for example, deserve to be promoted in their own right, rather than as components of other added-value products. Mr McLeod also argued for the development of chilled half-shell oysters for the retail sector as being one way of promoting sales. He said that in New Zealand this kind of product was available but only in frozen form.

A significant emphasis during the first day of the conference was on the need for strong promotion and marketing. Steven Tait, Head of Sales and Marketing, Freedom Food said the soft drink market emphasised this.

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