Venison black pudding being launched by Perth firm
A Scottish firm is to launch venison black pudding on the market, following taste trials by food scientists.
Perth-based Seriously Good Venison will start selling the product via its website and at farmers' markets in the central belt from the beginning of May.
It follows successful consumer taste panels run by scientists at Queen Margaret University (QMU) in Edinburgh.
The firm claims it will be the first commercially produced black pudding made with deer blood in the UK.
QMU's Scottish Centre for Food Development and Innovation had been tasked with identifying if consumers were keen to deviate from the traditional black pudding recipe, which is usually made with pig blood.
Seriously Good Venison director Vikki Banks, who has been running the business since 2009, said: "We had identified a gap in the market for the UK's first black pudding made from deer.
"We developed several recipes - one original recipe and another which would be suitable for the gluten-free market.
"However, we needed specialists support to establish the facts about customer taste preferences and perceptions of the product concept."