The horsemeat scandal has spread to colleges and hospitals, with authorities struggling to maintain pace with the size of the crisis.
Cottage pies destined for 47 schools across Lancashire were withdrawn after testing positive for horsemeat on Thursday, and in Northern Ireland more than a few burgers bound for hospitals were withdrawn after officials confirmed they contained equine DNA.
It isn’t known what number pupils could have already eaten the cottage pies or how long the product have been available in schools in Lancashire.
Lancashire county councillor Susie Charles said: “We share the troubles people have about what’s clearly a first-rate problem in food supplies around the UK and Europe. Thanks to those concerns we decided to hunt extra assurance that our external suppliers weren’t providing any products containing horsemeat DNA, and one of the crucial products has returned a favorable result.
“Relatively few schools in Lancashire use this actual product but our priority is to produce absolute assurance that meals contain what the label says – having discovered this one doesn’t, we don’t have any hesitation in removing it from menus.”
David Bingham of the health service’s business services organisation in Northern Ireland, which gives meat for health trusts, said a spread from an organization in Ireland had tested positive for traces of horsemeat. “We’ve acted immediately. Once we got information there is a confidence issue we withdrew the product,” he said.
Northern Ireland’s agriculture minister, Michelle O’Neill, has called a gathering at the crisis, with other executive ministers because of attend.
The Food Standards Agency is because of publish the result of UK-wide tests for the presence of horsemeat in processed meals. The united kingdom government said retailers selling affected products had inquiries to answer about; what inquiries that they had made about their suppliers and the way similar problems may be avoided sooner or later.
In a public letter issued on Friday, 11 of the UK’s major food suppliers, including Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda, said they shared shoppers’ “anger and outrage” on the scandal. “We can do whatever it takes to revive public confidence within the food they buy and eat,” they said.
Staffordshire council said it had taken beef off school menus as a precaution.
