No horsemeat in Merton school dinners

Merton Council have said that school dinners provided in the borough come from reputable suppliers in the UK.

Just last week, the council has liaised with its main school-meal catering contractor ISS along with their suppliers following the outbreak of contaminated beef.

In line with catering benchmark the Food for Life standards, meat given to schools comes from organisations accredited with an approved quality mark such as the Red Tractor Assurance. 

This is a guarantee of quality and origin and that every critical step of the food supply chain has been independently inspected to ensure food is produced to quality standards.

Merton's cabinet member for education, Councillor Martin Whelton said: "We take the issue of food safety extremely seriously and it is important parents know we are working closely to with contractors to monitor the situation." 

"The school dinners provided to children are freshly prepared daily on site from unprocessed ingredients so pupils can enjoy their food with the confidence they are eating good quality British meat."