Sutherland food safety officer Sandy Fraser retires after more than three decades in post
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Sandy Fraser, a well-known Highland Council food safety officer, has retired after 31 years spent working with businesses across Sutherland to ensure their food production and distribution processes were up to standard.
Around 30 colleagues, friends and family gathered at the Trentham Hotel, Dornoch, some weeks ago for a farewell dinner in honour of Mr Fraser, who lives with his wife Mary in the town.
Brought up in Perthshire where his father worked on farms, Mr Fraser joined Perth and Kinross District Council in 1978 as a poultry meat inspector and spent some 13 years in that post.
He moved to work as a food safety officer with Sutherland District Council in 1991 after achieving a qualification in red meat inspection. His post was absorbed into Highland Council when it came into being in 1995.
No stranger to Sutherland, Mr Fraser and his family had previously holidayed in Brora and at Grannie’s Hielan’ Hame, Embo.
He became a well kent figure across the county as he conducted food safety inspections from Dornoch to Lochinver and Durness.
“I was in contact with a lot of good businesses and met a lot of nice people,” he said. “I always felt my job was to encourage them to comply with the law and do things the right way. Legislation was always behind me, but I did not want to beat the drum and say ‘you must do this’ or ‘you must do that’.”
His remit expanded to include water sampling when legislation covering private water supplies came into being.
He has always found his job “varied and interesting” and particularly enjoyed mentoring and encouraging young students entering the environmental health field.
Three years ago he went part-time, and eventually decided the time had come to embrace retirement.
At the dinner, colleagues showered him with gifts including glasses, bottles of spirits and a hip flask as well as garden vouchers.
“I was gobsmacked,” he said. “The gifts were hugely thoughtful.”
A keen golfer, he is enjoying spending more time at Royal Dornoch and also with his grandson, Archie.
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