St Helens Council: No horse meat in school meals (From St Helens Star)

St Helens Council: No horse meat in school meals

11:04am Friday 15th February 2013 in News

MEALS served to pupils at schools across St Helens have been cleared of having any traces of horse meat, the council said today.

The local authority today moved to reassure parents that meat supplied to the council to schools, residential care homes or other customers, is not affected by "contamination".

Their message comes following the horse meat scandal, which has embroiled supermarkets, abattoirs, food suppliers and meat processing plants.

In a statement the council said: “As soon as the horse meat controversy broke the council contacted all of its food suppliers to make sure that produce supplied to them was fully tested and free of contamination.

“All results have come back negative. The food is supplied to schools and to other customers.”

Councillor Richard McCauley, cabinet member for environmental protection and safer communities said he hoped “this puts people’s minds at ease”.

He added: “We were quick to contact all our food suppliers to check the position as we wanted to be in a position to reassure people that the food they were getting is what is on the label.”

Meanwhile, bosses at Whiston and St Helens Hospitals have also reassured patients.

A spokesperson for St Helens and Knowsley NHs Trust said: "The Trust’s catering partner Medirest has received confirmation from its nominated meat suppliers that no contaminated products have been supplied to the Trust and that they are fully compliant with the required traceability, testing and hygiene processes to ensure the integrity of their products is maintained.”