6 April, 2007

SHETLAND shellfish farmers Demlane Mussels have been nominated for a prestigious food industry award for their lightly oak-smoked mussels.

The company has been short listed in the fish and seafood retail product section of the sixth Scottish Food and Drink Excellence Awards.

Demlane is owned by a company called Isle of Shuna, who have a 25 per cent market share of Scottish farmed mussels in the UK.

This particular product is cooked in a traditional Shetland way where the mussels are gently steamed in their own juices and lightly oak smoked.

Isle of Shuna's quality control officer Anna Neish said: "We are delighted to be short listed for this prestigious award. Our product is relatively young in the marketplace and we are busy targeting both wholesale and retail markets to establish sales throughout the UK.

"We believe that we have taken a very innovative approach to developing our smoked mussels.

"Our mussels are of the highest quality and we employ rigorous environmental practices to ensure our enterprise is in harmony with the environment. We hope that we catch the imagination of the judges on the day."