John Swinney pledged to put a cap on the price of "essential items" in an SNP election manifesto pledge
The Scottish government's proposed food price cap will be "ineffective", business groups have told the first minister.
Twenty-three organisations have written a joint letter to John Swinney – who will set out his programme for government on Tuesday – urging him to scrap his plan for a legal cap on some food and drink prices.
Signatories include groups representing retail, food and drink production, manufacturing and distribution businesses in Scotland.
In the SNP's election manifesto it pledged to compel large supermarkets to limit the cost of essential items – such as milk, eggs, cheese and rice – to ease the cost of living.
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Swinney said people were struggling to afford a basic shop and he had a "public health responsibility" to provide an affordable nutritious diet.
But the joint letter said a statutory cap would not address the "root causes of elevated food prices" – rising production, refrigeration, and distribution costs.
It is signed by groups including the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC), the Food and Drink Federation Scotland, Scottish Bakers and Dairy UK.
Ewan MacDonald-Russell, deputy head of the SRC, told the BBC's Radio Scotland Breakfast programme the plans were an "appallingly terrible idea".
"Price caps don't tackle food price inflation," he said.
"They are not a solution, they are a gimmick that sounds quite effective, but it just displaces cost elsewhere.
"We can't see a single example of where this has worked."
MacDonald-Russell pointed to Hungary, where he said a price cap policy led to shortages on the shelves, domestic products being replaced by "cheap imports" and tension between retailers and customers.
