A WEEK of activity celebrating the quality and versatility of Scotch Lamb PGI will kick off on Thursday, September 1.

Quality Meat Scotland has a range of activities planned during Love Lamb Week, a UK-wide collective push to raise the profile of lamb, and is encouraging all those involved in the Scotch Lamb supply chain to support the week.

QMS’s on-going Scotch Lamb marketing and PR campaign is focusing on raising awareness of how simple and quick it is to make delicious, tasty family meals with Scotch Lamb.

A host of top celebrity chefs are involved, including Jak O’Donnell, Jean Christophe Novelli and The Incredible Spicemen – Tony Singh and Cyrus Todiwala – who are set to inspire visitors to the Scotch Lamb Cookery Theatre at Dundee Food and Flower Festival on September 2, 3 and 4, where Scotch Lamb will be one of the main ingredients.

Local chefs will also be on hand to wow the crowds at the Festival, including Jamie Scott, former winner of 'Masterchef: The Professionals' and owner of The Newport Restaurant, Newport on Tay; Adam Newth from the Tayberry Restaurant, Broughty Ferry; Michael Eames from the Malmaison Dundee and Scott Davies and Shirley Spears from the Three Chimneys in Skye, to name just a few.

Scotch Lamb in-store promotional events will also be in full swing with 36 taking place in retailers across Scotland during Love Lamb Week alone. Throughout the on-going Scotch Lamb campaign, QMS is undertaking 89 days of Scotch Lamb in-store promotional activity in Scottish retailers.

To coincide with Love Lamb Week, recipe leaflets and other point of sale materials have also been distributed to members of the Scotch Butchers Club, run by QMS.

Farmers and others involved in the industry are being encouraged to support the week which includes a major push via social media using the hashtag #lovelambweek

A key objective of the 2016 campaign is to encourage consumers to understand the versatility, simplicity and speed of cooking with lamb. As part of this year’s campaign, a range of new recipe videos for on-line and social media use have been produced. These have been created in simple steps using short, fast-motion videos which are optimized for Facebook to ensure they appeal to today’s social media savvy consumers.

“The target market for the 2016 campaign is young professionals and busy working parents," said QMS marketing controller Suzie Carlaw. “We want to make Scotch Lamb a regular item on their shopping lists by tempting them with nutritious dishes which can be cooked in half an hour or less.”