MORE than one in every six pensioners in Scotland are at risk of malnutrition — but the number could be “just the tip of the iceberg,” a food charity warned today.

Research carried out by Food Train has found that at least 16 per cent of Scotland’s pensioners — amounting to over 170,000 — live with the risk of malnutrition and the true number could be much higher.

Looking at eight Scottish council areas, along with the country as a whole, researchers found the problem most acute in Glasgow and Falkirk, where a shocking 28 per cent of pensioners were in danger of malnutrition over the last three years, closely followed by 23 per cent in Clackmannanshire, Dundee and Stirling.  

The charity has demanded action and has written to all 135 MSP at Holyrood this week, calling on all agencies to carry out mandatory screening for malnutrition, a post of older people’s minister to be created and the right to food enshrined into Scots law.

Food Train chief executive Rosie McLuskie commented: “In this day and age, it’s staggering that 16 per cent of older people are at risk of malnutrition in Scotland.

“But the concerning reality is that this number is likely to be just the tip of the iceberg.

“The people we have screened are those who have accessed a service run by us, or one of our partners.

“What about the people who aren’t using services like ours and are slipping through the net?

“For their sake, we need to redouble efforts to get an accurate picture of the scale of those at risk — and those who are actually malnourished and need immediate help.

“There’s lots of talk about food poverty but not access to food.”

Socialist MSP and former Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard told the Star: “Pensioner poverty is a blight on our society.

“It is resulting in a very real and grim prospect of rising malnutrition and a heightened risk of hypothermia in one of the richest countries in the world.

“The oldest pensioners are the poorest pensioners, many of them women.

“We need direct intervention by governments, including the restoration of the winter fuel allowance.”

SNP public health secretary Jenni Minto responded: “Scotland’s communities experience health, quality of life and life expectancy differently across our society.

“No-one should have to compromise on food or other essentials, and we are working to support older people and tackle poverty.”