Following the national issues found with some processed beef based products being contaminated with horse meat, the North Yorkshire County Council have been pro-activeley managing the issue and have audit their main supplier with some spot testing of beef.
A North Yorkshire County Council spokesperson said:
Like many authorities North Yorkshire County Council is carrying out the necessary checks on food served in schools. North Yorkshire County Caterers, the authority’s school meals service, supplies 85 per cent of the county’s schools.
All the meat for schools and the county council’s elderly persons’ homes is purchased from Gilmoors in Harrogate, which is contracted to mince and dice meats from fresh prime cuts – whole forequarter joints, beef, lamb and pork sourced from farms in the Northern region and UK slaughtered.
A county council audit of Gilmoors last week included an inspection of meat traceability records and the examination of raw meat stocks used in the County Caterers’ school meal menus. The audit was satisfactory and showed that everything was in good order. As an additional safeguard the county council has carried out spot testing of beef being used in schools.
It is also testing some processed meat products which a small number of schools have purchased on an ad hoc basis, outside the advertised menu. The authority is awaiting the outcome of these tests.
