Horse DNA has been found in cottage pies sent to 47 schools in Lancashire, it has emerged, proving for the first time that horse meat has found its way into British school dinners.
The council's own laboratory has been carrying out DNA tests on samples collected by its trading standards officers, and preliminary results show the presence of horse DNA in the school meals, which have been withdrawn.
Tom Walker, a spokesman for the council, said the samples would now be sent off to the Food Standards Agency for more thorough tests which will show what proportion of the meat is horse meat rather than beef.
In a statement the council said: "Lancashire County Council has withdrawn a beef product from 47 school kitchens after it provisionally tested positive for traces of horse DNA.
"The provisional results of the tests on a pre-prepared cottage pie from an external supplier were reported late yesterday evening, February 14, and have been passed on to the Food Standards Agency.
"The county council's catering service submitted a range of beef products from its suppliers to be analysed by Lancashire County Scientific Services, in accordance with Food Standards Agency guidelines."
Councillor Susie Charles, cabinet member for children and schools, said: "We share the concerns people have about what is clearly a major problem in food supplies across the UK and Europe.
"Because of those concerns we decided to seek extra assurance that our external suppliers were not providing any products containing horsemeat DNA, and one of the products has returned a positive result.
"Relatively few schools in Lancashire use this particular product but our priority is to provide absolute assurance that meals contain what the label says – having discovered this one doesn't, we have no hesitation in removing it from menus.
"This does not appear to be a food safety issue but I've no doubt parents will agree we need to take a very firm line with suppliers and it is a credit to our officers that we have been able to quickly identify the problem and take the product off the menus."
Lancashire Trading Standards is one of 28 services across the country taking part in the FSA's testing programme for horse DNA.
最新检测结果显示，含有马肉的馅饼被供应给了英国兰开夏郡的47所学校。这也是首次证实马肉已流入英国学校食堂。
兰开夏郡地方议会的实验室已对贸易标准官员收集的肉类样本进行DNA检测。初步结果显示，校餐的肉食中含有马肉，这些问题食品已被回收。
地方议会发言人汤姆-沃克说，这些样本将被送到英国食品标准局进行更彻底的检查，检测结果将告诉大家样本中有多大比例的“牛肉”是马肉。
地方议会在声明中说：“在初步检测含有马肉后，兰开夏郡地方议会已回收了47所学校食堂中所谓的牛肉食品。”
“2月14日晚，对购买自外部供应商的制成馅饼进行初步检测的报告就已经做出，并递交给英国食品标准局。”
“按照英国食品标准局的要求，地方议会中负责餐饮服务的部门已经上交了来自供应商的多种牛肉食品样本，供兰开夏郡科学检测机构进行分析。”
来自儿童与学校部门的议员苏希-查尔斯说：“这显然是英国和欧洲食品供应中的大问题，我们和大家对此都很担心。”
“正是由于这些担心，我们决定进一步确保我们的外部供应商没有供应马肉食品，但检测的样本出了问题。”
“兰开夏郡选用这一问题肉制品的学校相对较少，但我们首先要考虑的是，必须绝对保证肉制品和标签所标明的成分一致，在发现这一肉制品有问题后，我们立刻进行了回收。”
“这似乎不是食品安全问题，但我们对供应商必须采取强硬态度，我相信家长们会同意我们的做法。我们很快就发现了问题，回收了问题食品，这也是政府官员的荣誉。”
英国有28家机构参加了英国食品标准局检测马肉的项目。兰开夏郡贸易标准局是其中之一。
cottage pie: 肉馅土豆泥饼，上面铺一层捣碎的马铃薯的肉饼