Horsemeat is not on school menu, caterers tell parents

Turning blind eye

gwarren@thekmgroup.co.uk SCHOOL catering firms supplying meals across the Canterbury district have reassured parents their children are not tucking into horsemeat.

Five companies were ordered by Kent County Council to verify no traces had been found in their dinners in the wake of the contaminated beef scandal.

GS Plus, which caters for 16 primary schools in Canterbury, Whitstable and Herne Bay, and Principles, which supplies a dozen in Faversham, were among those who reported back.

KCC spokesman Ella Hughes said: “We have had assurances from them all.

“The fact is that in recent years school dinners have become more healthy and contractors buy their supplies from reputable sources and make most of the meals, including the burgers, themselves.”

Kevin Shovelton, KCC director of edu- cation, planning and access, said: “We have contracts with five different catering contractors to supply school meals to 230 schools.

“We have asked all catering contractors to reconfirm that their meat sup-

‘The fact is that in recent years school dinners have become more healthy’

pliers are compliant with the required traceability, testing and hygiene processes to make sure the integrity of their products is maintained.

“As most of the meat dishes are prepared on site, some with meat from Kentish butchers, there are very few bought-in processed meat dishes.”

The Food Standards Agency has launched a sampling programme to investigate how far products contaminated with horsemeat have been distributed.

Tests for horse DNA are being carried out on processed beef products – including those supplied to schools, hospitals and care homes – before results are published on Friday. An expert in food marketing from the Kent Business School in Canterbury says everyone in the “food chain” should share responsibility for the horsemeat scandal.

Prof Andrew Fearne says the demand for ever cheaper food is to blame and has led to the “turning of a blind eye” to the consequences.

But he believes the supermarkets are legally obliged to “ultimately carry the can”.

He said: “The horsemeat scandal is the latest example of a food chain running ever faster, just to stand still, falling victim to one short-cut too many in the pursuit of survival.

“We don’t know exactly what happened in this latest case of horseplay in the UK food industry, but we do know that no one individual organisation is to blame.

“There is a collective responsibility for the development of sustainable food chains and the delivery of sustainable food.

“Transparency in food supply chains is entirely possible but comes at a cost – not the cost of traceability systems or data capture - but the cost of revealing the ‘truth‘ and knowing the ‘reality’.

“The beauty of doubt and uncertainty is that it leaves the door wide open for assumptions and bounded rationality, without which we would all be obliged to pay more for our burgers, whatever the prefix.”