SCHOOL dinners in the area are free from horsemeat, councils have reassured parents.
It comes after the discovery of horsemeat in some supermarket beef products.
Hampshire County Council and Portsmouth City Council have now reassured parents the meat served in school dinners is carefully checked and contains 100 per cent beef.
The leader of Hampshire County Council, Councillor Ken Thornber, said: ‘As we are serving around 45,000 meals each day to Hampshire pupils we have to be very sure about food safety.
‘We take the food chain back to source by looking at where the food comes from, and we also carry out strict hygiene and cleanliness checks in school kitchens to ensure the meals served to children remain of the highest standard.
‘Our Hampshire Scientific Service checks at source all the suppliers of food provided by the county council, and carry out stringent checks throughout the year.’
Hampshire County Council provides around 8,500,000 meals every year to people in its schools and care homes.
Mike Stoneman, Portsmouth City Council’s strategic commissioning manager for education, said: ‘We have a contract with ISS Education for the provision of school meals.
‘All of the meat served in our schools is Red Tractor approved, which means that is has gone through stringent quality controls already.’
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