Firm takes beef dishes off menu at schools

London Evening Standard/London

Beef dishes have been taken off the menu at 850 schools pending the results of tests for horsemeat.

Eden Foodservice, a catering firm that is one of the biggest suppliers to nurseries, primary and secondary schools, said it was withdrawing six dishes, including beef burgers, sausage rolls, pasta dishes and sliced roast beef.

The company said it was “confident” there was no contamination and that tests had already confirmed there is no horsemeat in its Cornish pasties.

Nestlé became the latest food company to be hit by the horsemeat scandal after traces were found in beef pasta meals in Italy and Spain.

The Swiss-based firm, one of the world’s largest food companies, said a week ago that its products were not affected. However, it has withdrawn two chilled pasta products — Buitoni Beef Ravioli and Beef Tortellini — in Spain and a frozen lasagne sold to catering firms in France.

“We are now suspending deliveries of all our finished products produced using beef supplied by a German firm, H J Schypke,” it said.

“We want to apologise to consumers and reassure them that the actions being taken to deal with this issue will result in higher standards and enhanced traceability.”

Chancellor George Osborne said on Monday night that supermarkets and caterers were responsible for the integrity of food.

He told ITV’s The Agenda: “I think lots of people have been surprised that what you buy in your British supermarket comes from a Romanian abattoir, packaged in Luxembourg.

“I don’t think people realised how international the food business was. I guess just eating British beef might be the solution to this problem.”

Test results on about 950 products will be revealed by the Food Standards Agency on Friday.