Wild Venison – does it inspire enough public confidence?

The general consumption of venison is gathering pace; an exciting prospect for those who care about managing the deer population of Britain for the good of farmers, biodiversity, the environment as a whole, and indeed for deer welfare itself. Retail sales of game meat, including venison and game birds, rose by over 15% between April 2023 and April 2024. However, current public understanding of deer population, deer management and most importantly venison remains at molehill scale rather than mountain. 

The foundations of the call to include more venison in the diet of the average brit are that we have a very large deer population and it needs to be managed. Effective management will allow tree planting efforts to be more successful, reduce the high costs borne by farmers of crop damage by deer, and maintain a thriving countryside, with healthy woods and high biodiversity. Venison is an inevitability of deer management and getting it onto the plates of brits in Smethwick and Swansea is critical to empowering deer managers to carry out their responsibilities at the required scale. First we need to ensure that the public can place every confidence in any wild venison that they see in the supermarket.  

Some supermarkets like Waitrose and M&S only stock farmed venison, but we are seeing wild British venison in other supermarkets like Aldi and Tesco, among others. Can the public trust that the venison they are buying has been killed and butchered with adequate scrutiny to hygiene standards? They can if the venison bears the British Quality Wild Venison logo.  

British Quality Wild Venison (BQWV) is an independently audited quality assurance scheme for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, along the lines of Red Tractor or the Aim to Sustain Game Assurance scheme. BQWV provides several services to those involved in deer management and to consumers. Venison producers and processors can sign up (many processors already have) and after being audited by the internationally accredited auditors (SAI Intertek Global), they then have a recognisable way to prove the venison they produce or process is of the highest standards and is trustworthy. Through this, all venison bearing the BQWV logo is fully traceable from the point when it was still walking around to when it is on the shelf in a shop refrigerator, again adding to public confidence in the product. If together we can create good market demand for wild British venison, our countryside will be better off for it. 

For this assurance scheme to achieve its goal of enabling better deer management in Britain, as supported by a plethora of countryside organisations, government bodies and game dealers, it is essential that as many venison producers and processors as possible sign up for membership following an audit. If you are a venison producer, i.e. a deer stalker, landowner or estate manager, and would like to learn more about BQWV, then please take a look at their website, or indeed listen to the Eat Wild podcast episode where BQWV is discussed with the Forestry Commission’s Deer Officer David Hooton, listen here, or find on your chosen podcast platform.  

If you’re not a venison producer, but still want to play your part in this endeavour, then next time you are in a supermarket and see farmed venison for sale, leave a comment with the customer services desk that you’re disappointed not to see wild venison on the shelves. Supermarkets have their procedures, and your comments will be looked at. If you do find wild venison on the shelves, then buy some and head to our website or Eat Wild’s website for some recipe inspiration.