No horsemeat in school meals, North Yorkshire County Council confirms (From Craven Herald)

No horsemeat in school meals, North Yorkshire County Council confirms

11:00am Thursday 28th February 2013 in News

Parents of children at North Yorkshire schools and residents of care homes are being reassured over the horsemeat scandal.

The county council this week issued a statement to its schools saying its caterers only used fresh meat and poultry and all from farms in Yorkshire.

“We do not use frozen processed products which contain meat in the meals we provide,” said Keith Tillbrook, manager of North Yorkshire County Caterers.

“Our policy is based on making food from raw ingredients on school premises freshly every day.”

The county council and its caterers were responding to the recent revelations that traces of horsemeat have been found in prepared meat meals.

The council has carried out checks on food being served up at its schools and homes which have proved satisfactory and is now carrying out further spot checks for which results have still to be announced.

North Yorkshire County Caterers supplies 85 per cent of the county’s schools and all meat for schools and elderly persons’ homes is bought from Gilmoors in Harrogate, which sources its meat from farms in the North.

“A county council audit of Gilmoors last week included an inspection of meat traceability records and the examination of raw meat stocks used in the county caterers’ school meal menus,” said the spokeswoman. The audit was satisfactory and showed that everything was in good order.

“As an additional safeguard, the council has carried out spot testing of beef being used in schools.

“It is also testing some processed meat products which a small number of schools have purchased on an ad hoc basis, outside the advertised menu. The authority is awaiting the outcome of these tests.”

Meanwhile, Lancashire County Council has suspended the supply of all frozen processed beef products to schools as a precaution after horse DNA was found in a pre-prepared cottage pie and a Halal beef burger.

Council leader Coun Geoff Driver said: “It is frankly appalling that we have found horsemeat in two products which were supposedly 100 per cent beef.

“Under the circumstances, we feel we have no choice but to withdraw all frozen processed beef products as a precaution until the food industry and regulators do something to restore confidence in what people are being fed.”