Pork found in halaal meat in school
2013-03-14 21:34
London - Traces of pork were found in halaal chicken
sausages served in at least one primary school in central London, the local
city council said on Thursday.
The pork was detected at St Mary's Bryanston Square Primary
School after Westminster City Council conducted tests of meat products in
schools in the wake of a horse meat mislabelling scandal across Europe.
"In the issue obviously where halaal is concerned
pork is pork," a spokesperson for Westminster City Council said.
"So we're not going to split hairs over
quantities."
Council officers took seven samples from three schools in
the week beginning on 25 February to test them for the presence of DNA from
beef, lamb, pork, chicken, turkey, goat and horse.
The Council said it had a contract with Chartwells, which
is part of catering company Compass Group, to provide meals for around 40
schools in Westminster.
No horsemeat has been found in any of the samples, the
spokesperson said.
Chartwells and Compass were not immediately available for
comment.
The council said it had instructed its contractor to
temporarily stop supplying meat until the issue is resolved, and to no longer
use its halaal meat supplier.
