Scottish sausage manufacturer Devro has blamed its less than sizzling performance in 2000 on food safety scares in the UK and Europe. Chairman Bruce Farmer said: "The emergence of BSE in the latter part of the year in mainland Europe was a very significant event." The scare reduced sales, and pushed up costs as Devro had to source the collagen used in its sausage coatings from BSE-free countries. Devro's cellulose business has been for sale for the past year, but has attracted no formal offers. Turnover in the year to December 31 fell to £229.5m from £241.6m. Pretax profit was £19.8m. {{NEWS }}