Parents and pupils across Tayside and Fife have received assurances that council school dinners have not been tainted by horsemeat.
Fife Council leader Alex Rowley issued a cast-iron pledge there is “no risk” of school meals in the region containing traces of horsemeat, while community service provider Tayside Contracts, which caters for schools across Dundee, Angus and Perth and Kinross, guaranteed there was “no evidence” to suggest its meals service had been affected by the ongoing situation.
Mr Rowley said: “We have sought and been given an absolute assurance that there is no risk of school meals in Fife being affected by the current food quality problems being experienced in products being bought in shops.”
His sentiments were echoed by the council’s senior manager for catering, cleaning and facilities Angus Thomson, who said the local authority had received confirmation from suppliers that no products used could be affected by horsemeat.
“We procure food to a very high standard and have a stringent assessment process for suppliers prior to any contract award,” Mr Thomson said. “This includes tests on traceability.
“And, as our menus meet exacting nutritional standards, the majority of the processed food mentioned in the media cannot be used in schools.”
Giving a similar assurance to parents and children in Tayside schools, Tayside Contracts managing director Iain Waddell said the firm and its suppliers adhere to stringent and robust procurement and food hygiene audit systems, which include precise criteria on the traceability of produce.
The news comes as the Soil Association revealed only one in 10 schools in Scotland knows where its food comes from and that was thanks to its Food for Life catering mark.
The Soil Association claims to have the UK’s only independent food accreditation scheme, setting standards of traceability, quality and provenance for public sector meals and inspecting caterers to ensure that standards are met.
While Mr Thomson confirmed that Fife Council was speaking to the director of Fife Diet and representatives from the Soil Association to work towards a catering mark award, Mr Waddell said Tayside Contracts is not part of the scheme.
Instead it acquires its produce via the Scottish Government organisation Scotland Excel, which in turn has its own procedures to ensure that rigorous food safety standards criteria are in place prior to any food supplier being awarded a contract.
According to a Scotland Excel spokeswoman, the organisation has been working closely with its suppliers to implement supply chain traceability checks and to confirm the authenticity of meat products.
She said that, to date, Scotland Excel has received information from all manufacturers within its supply chain giving an assurance that none of their products are sourced from the suppliers who have been named in the horsemeat scandal.
Tayside Contracts also operates a robust annual programme of microbiological, chemical and raw meat testing, undertaken by Dundee City Council scientific services.
According to the Soil Association, there are more than 3.5 million Food for Life meals served in Scotland each year, including school meals served by Stirling Council, East Ayrshire Council and Highland Council, with at least another four local authorities including Fife aiming to gain the catering mark for their school and community meals this year.