Horse meat in school meals

Before I start a rant, I must say that I find it interesting that the Daily Telegraph, that middle class bastion of grammar and English usage, resolutely uses the term "school dinners"... ho hum!

But, and it had to happen, schools and councils are now being blamed for the horse meat scandal. Malcolm Walker, chief executive of Iceland, said on the Andrew Marr Show on Sunday that the "problem really lies" with councils buying food from the poorly supplied catering industry and that "retailers should not be blamed for the horse meat crisis".

This is just completely bizarre blame-shifting, with no excuse of any sort. Schools and local authorities specify the type and quality of meat they want to buy, whether it is processed into ready meals or in the form of raw meat. Of course there are cost pressures, and I'd like schools to be able to spend more and get higher quality raw products, but no-one anywhere is specifying that a bit of horse will be fine so long as the supplier keeps the cost down. Schools and councils are clearly being defrauded by suppliers where horse meat is being supplied instead of beef.

The responsibility lies unambiguously with the suppliers and retailers.

And in case you are thinking of shopping in Iceland, remember that Malcolm Walker also said that he would not eat "value" branded meat from supermarkets!

One other thing – the risk of Bute is tiny; even if a horse had just been dosed before slaughter – and that's unlikely – the dose received by anyone eating a portion of that horse would be minuscule. The problem is not directly one of food safety. Indeed I understand that there is a growing interest in 'real' horse meat in the UK!