Scots school dinners with Brazilian meat and Belgian carrots
SCOTTISH children were served nearly £30million worth of imported meats, fruits and vegetables in their school meals last year.
Some ingredients came from as far away as Brazil, Thailand and China – despite a Scottish Government campaign urging people to buy homegrown produce.
Less than a fifth of the food dished up in school lunches is sourced in Scotland, council chiefs have admitted.
Education Secretary John Swinney pledged in March last year to review the procurement process of local authorities after it emerged that £1.3million had been paid for chicken from Thailand.
But since then, more than £1million has been spent on meat from countries such as Thailand and Brazil.
This includes frozen and fresh chicken, beef, turkey and fish.
Council figures obtained through freedom of information requests show £42.5million was spent on school food through procurement firm Scotland Excel.
Of this, less than a third – only £13.1million – was spent in Scotland, with more than £29.4million paid for food from Europe, South America and Asia between July last year and June this year.
By volume, less than a fifth of the food is sourced here. Items imported from abroad include carrots and leeks from Belgium and frozen raspberries from Serbia – even though these are grown by farmers in Scotland.
Scottish Conservative well-being spokesman Brian Whittle said: ‘It is clear farmers are not being supported in the way they should.
‘One of the key elements in tackling health inequalities and the stubborn attainment gap surely should be ensuring the high quality food produced here in Scotland makes its way to schools.
‘That is evidently not the norm and needs to change, to support children’s health, to support our food producers and to cut back on an unnecessary carbon footprint.’
As well as buying in produce that is grown in Scotland, schools got £56,065 worth of cooked turkey from Brazil, £62,430 of sliced corned beef from Brazil and £61,625 of frozen cooked chicken strips from Thailand. Tuna was shipped in from Ecuador, while frozen fruit and veg was bought from China, Italy and Greece.
A spokesman for Scotland Excel said it ‘does not buy food on behalf of schools nor control local authority budgets for this’.
He added: ‘We develop and manage frameworks which councils can use to source a range of goods and services. This includes arrangements for frozen food, groceries, milk, fresh meats and fish.’
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘While it is for local authorities to decide how they buy food that is healthy, nutritious, affordable and to the highest standards, we have been working hard with the Scottish food industry, Scotland Excel and local authorities, with good progress being made to source locally.’
Council umbrella body Cosla did not respond to a request for comment.