Summit bid to improve school meals

Feb 24 2013

The horsemeat scandal has "thrown a spotlight" on how school meals are sourced, the Education Secretary has said.

It emerged this week that a frozen burger found in the kitchen of Cumbernauld High School, North Lanarkshire, contained horse DNA. North Lanarkshire Council said it was supplied by Brakes Group.

In response, government ministers have indicated they will hold a summit to look at ways of improving the standard of food served in schools, including changing the way ingredients are sourced.

The Scottish Government said work will be carried out to ensure that as much food as possible is locally-sourced and ministers want to meet councils to discuss how standards can be raised further.

Education Secretary Michael Russell said: "Our schools meals have already been vastly improved but the horsemeat scandal has thrown a spotlight on the sourcing of school food. Local authorities are rightly concerned that the good work going on to improve food in schools is being missed while we deal with the consequences of the current issue. We want to work with local authorities to be sure that best practice in procurement is routine in councils and that the procurement reforms we introduced are working well.

"That is why Richard Lochhead (Environment and Rural Affairs Secretary) and I will be inviting local authorities to a meeting to check standards and processes are in place and to discuss ways in which we can drive up standards and quality even more in future."

Local authorities across Scotland have been advised to "place a hold" on frozen beef burgers following the discovery in North Lanarkshire. It means schools, council leisure facilities and some social care establishments have also been told not to use any current stocks they have of frozen beef products, including mince. They were also advised not to order any new stocks until the outcome of detailed investigations.

The move was confirmed by procurement agency Scotland Excel, which deals with contracts on a national basis. It recommended councils and other public-sector customers to take a "precautionary approach" and take all frozen beef products off the menu.

Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson called for Mr Lochhead to be brought back before the Scottish Parliament to make an emergency statement on the escalating scandal. She said: "Richard Lochhead is clearly out of his depth in dealing with this escalating food crisis and is rapidly running out of time to bring it under control.

"This issue has now gone straight to the heart of the Scottish Government. Now, we know that when he stood up in Parliament last week he was less than straight when he talked about the quality of food being served in our schools. Since then we have discovered that pupils may have been served horse meat in burgers. With every day that passes, it's becoming more apparent that Richard Lochhead has no idea how widespread this food scandal is in Scotland."