CONCERNS over food standards, following the discovery of horse meat in burgers and processed food in some British supermarkets, has brought good news for local butchers.

According to Farmers' Weekly magazine since the scandal broke three weeks ago independent butchers nationally have reported a 10% increase in sales, including 40% for beefburgers.

Butchers J and S Downing who have shops in Tavistock Pannier Market and Pepper Street in Tavistock and Fore Street, Bere Alston, have noticed more people coming in since the 'horse meat' crisis made headlines.

The family butchers, started by brothers John and Simon Downing in 1989, who followed their father and grandfather in the trade, source their beef from Lamerton, pork from Milton Abbot, chickens from Beaworthy and lamb from Gulworthy.

Simon Downing said: 'Yes, a lot of customers have made a joke about the horse meat issue and people are certainly a bit more conscious of the traceability of their meat. I hope they do take note because they are assured of its quality when they come here.'

'The people of Tavistock like to know where their meat comes from and there are not many towns with so many family butchers to choose from. Many of our customers prefer to use us rather than the supermarkets because Tavistock is part of a big farming community and people appreciate their produce being locally sourced.'

The same could be said of another long established butcher, Palmers of Tavistock. The Brook Street site has been a butchers since the 1880s and Palmers opened there in 1963.

Managing director Duncan Bird said: 'We have had between ten and 15 per cent more people coming in during the past two weeks. Many of our customers want to know where the meat comes from. We can trace our meats to a ten to 15-mile radius of Tavistock. It comes from farmers in West Devon and Cornwall to a local abattoir then directly to us. We are an old-fashioned butchery.

'Of course, half of the customers mention about the horse meat and we joke that there is no horse in that! We certainly notice our mince sales have gone up. Customers want to know where their meat comes from; its a matter of trust.

'What people don't realise is that most of the time, particularly in steaks and the choicer cuts, we are cheaper than the supermarkets and can guarantee its traceability.'

The same could be said of Howells of Tavistock, whose shop is on the perimeter of the pannier market.

Butcher Andy Howell said: 'Some people do ask us where the meat is sourced and some make a bit of a joke about horse meat. But the majority of our customers know that all our meat is sourced locally from Devon and Cornwall such as Jasper's of Treburley, or J V Richards in Truro or chickens from a farm at Crediton.'

The local butcher takes a pride in the high standards of the produce, its quality and traceability as well as the cleanliness of the shop itself.

Andy added: 'A food inspector comes once a year to take away samples but we welcome it as we have nothing to hide. Put it this way, we would never sell anything we wouldn't eat ourselves.'

Yelverton butcher W A Bidder and Sons have also noticed more people coming to their shop in Yelverton Villas.

Butcher Rob Fitzsimmons said: 'It's a matter of trust, and people trust their local butcher. They know the meat is sourced locally and not coming from Belgium or Spain or wherever. Our beef comes from Walkhampton so you can't get much more local than that!'

At Lifton Farm Shop the family firm prides itself that the meat it sells is either reared on its farm in Lifton, or supplied from other local farms, ensuring complete tractability.

Spokeswoman Laura Mounce said there had been a notable increase in demand for meats from their butchery.

She said: 'Our beef is our own South Devon suckle herd, we rear our own turkeys and lamb and the pork is supplied from Cornwall.'

But it was not only local butchers seeing the benefits. Fresh meat sales at Morrisons have risen by 18% nationally in the wake of the crisis.

The supermarket, which has a Tavistock store, sources its own meat products, using 100% British meat and has gained shopper confidence because of that.