A competition to find the best butteries in the world is yet to receive any entrants from the city considered to be the home of the delicacy.

After months of searching for the best butteries, a salted bread roll considered a delicacy in Aberdeen, competition organisers are still waiting for an entry from the Granite City.

The World Buttery Championship was announced in March, with organisers encouraging professional and amateur bakers to put their recipes to the test.

Since it was launched by the Slow Food Aberdeen and Shire charity, entrants have come forward from Dundee and across Aberdeenshire.

But event coordinator Martin Gillespie revealed that not a single baker from Aberdeen has entered the competition.

He said: "I have visited every bakery in Aberdeen inviting them to apply and they seemed amenable to the idea, but I have been surprised by their deafening silence.

"When people think about butteries, they think about Aberdeen. Some even call them an Aberdeen roll.

"Nonetheless we haven't even had any home bakers from Aberdeen though we have a recipe available on our website."

In the interests of research, he and several others from the organising group recently gobbled up dozens of butteries on an "odyssey" exploring the region's bakeries.

Mr Gillespie said: "We went around 18 bakeries in the shire and six in the city, having a buttery at every single one and I reckon some are world-class."

Mr Gillespie fears that some producers of the delicacy - also known as a rowie - may have been put off by rules.

Rules state that only traditional forms of the delicacy will be eligible - ruling out versions which replace butter and lard with margarine and palm oil.

The winner of the contest will be awarded with a specially commissioned granite trophy.