Council: No horse meat in school meals

Staffordshire County Council has withdrawn beef from school meals but says that its service has not been affected by meat contamination.

Following the news that some beef products sold in supermarkets including Tesco, Asda, Lidl and Aldi were contaminated with horse and other types of meat, the council say it acted swiftly to confirm that its supply chains had not been affected.

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Cllr Mark Winnington, Cabinet member for environment and assets, said: “We have had assurances from all of our suppliers that neither they, nor their own suppliers, buy beef products from those companies implicated in recent reports. However, we will continue to seek a cast iron guarantee on the quality and origin of the food we buy.

“It is our policy that where possible we source meat and other products from Staffordshire suppliers – over 20% of our schools are buying their meat from Staffordshire farms, ensuring we get a high quality product, we know exactly where our meat comes from and in the process, we support the local economy. We hope to extend this to all of our schools.”

However, the county has removed beef from its school menus. The county council told the BBC that the move was a precaution and said normal menus were likely to return after the February half-term break.