School meals sourcing summit

24th February 2013

Changing the way food for school meals is sourced will help improve the standard of school meals.

Scottish Ministers announced today that work would be taken forward to ensure that as much locally sourced food as possible will be served within Scotland's schools.

Building on improvements that have already been made in recent years, Ministers are keen to meet with local authorities to discuss how standards can be raised even higher.

Cabinet Secretary for Education Mr Russell said:"Our schools meals have already been vastly improved but the horse meat scandal has thrown a spotlight on the sourcing of school food.

"Local Authorities are rightly concerned that the good work going on to improve food in schools is being missed while we deal with the consequences of the current issue.

"We want to work with local authorities to be sure that best practice in procurement is routine in Councils and that the procurement reforms we introduced are working well.

"That is why Mr Lochhead and I will be inviting local authorities to a meeting to check standards and processes are in place and to discuss ways in which we can drive up standards and quality even more in future."

Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs Mr Lochhead said:"We all know there is no substitute for high quality, locally sourced fresh produce and the recent horse meat issue has absolutely underlined that there is no substitute for quality.

"In Scotland, local authorities are already looking to use the best ingredients available on their doorstep more often than ever before.

"For example, in East Ayrshire Council on occasions where burgers are on the menu, they are made fresh from Scotch beef and recently a local Ayrshire butcher has stepped up and agreed to prepare them to the Council’s own recipe.

"I am keen to see more examples of this type of approach across Scotland. There is already much local sourcing but we need to strive for all food in our schools to be Scottish and of the highest standard."