BBC
Ministers are to invite councils to a summit on the sourcing of school meals in response to the horsemeat scandal.
The Scottish government said it wanted to ensure as much locally sourced food as possible was served in schools.
They also plan to discuss ways to "drive up standards and quality even more in future".
The Scottish Conservatives called for an emergency statement to parliament on the "escalating horsemeat scandal".
The summit plans come days after councils were told not to use any frozen beef products following the discovery of horse DNA in a school canteen burger.
Procurement agency Scotland Excel had already advised authorities to place on hold the use of frozen beefburgers.
Education Secretary Mike Russell said school meals had already been greatly improved in recent years but the horsemeat scandal had "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," he said.
"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."
Scotch beef
Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead said the recent horsemeat issue had "absolutely underlined that there is no substitute for quality".
He added: "In Scotland, local authorities are already looking to use the best ingredients available on their doorstep more often than ever before.
"In East Ayrshire Council, on occasions that 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."
But the Scottish Conservatives said that since Mr Lochhead made a statement to Holyrood last week insisting the situation was under control it had emerged that horsemeat may have been fed to pupils in Scotland's schools.
"We only heard half the truth when the minister made his statement in Parliament and the public now deserve to be told the full facts to help restore confidence in the food chain.
"The only way this can be done is for Richard Lochhead to come back to the chamber and give a full account of how widespread the problem of horsemeat contamination is in Scotland."
Ms Davidson also called for a commitment to restore £1m funding to the budget for the Food Standards Agency in Scotland.
Scottish Liberal Democrat rural affairs spokesman Tavish Scott said the horsemeat scandal was completely unacceptable.
He said: "The Scottish government must immediately change public procurement rules to guarantee quality local produce is prioritised in purchasing."
Mr Scott said he wanted action on the issue announced in parliament next week.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-21561405 (8/3/2013)
SUN
THE horsemeat scandal hit school meals today after traces were found in cottage pie served to thousands of children.
It was also revealed that meals sold at eateries owned by Whitbread - which runs Brewers Fayre, Beefeater Grill, Table Table and Premier Inn hotels - also contained horse.
The pre-prepared cottage pie lunches had been delivered to 47 schools kitchens in just one county.
Lancashire County Council confirmed that horse DNA had been found in the meals - but officials refused to disclose which sites had served them.
Laboratory tests on the samples - collected by trading standards officers - were positive for horsemeat.
They have now been sent to the Food Standards Agency for further tests to determine what percentage of meat is horse rather than beef as expected.
Bosses 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 on 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.”
Meanwhile a Whitbread spokesman said 30 products had been sent for testing yesterday.
He added: “We are shocked and disappointed at this failure of the processed meat supply chain.
“As an industry it is clear we need the supply chain to deliver products to the highest standards of food integrity and quality that we and our customers expect.
“As a responsible business we shall work with the FSA to implement a robust testing regime to avoid this happening in the future. We would like to sincerely apologise to our customers for any concerns or inconvenience that this may cause.”
The latest twist in the scandal was revealed as the FSA confirmed 29 of the 2,501 samples of supermarket beef products contained horse.
More than 900 tests will also be carried out next week, with the results to be published on Friday.
FSA chief scientist Andrew Wadge said: “If you’re in the business of selling food, you have to make sure you’re clear to consumers that what you sell is what it says on the label.”
Lancashire councillor Susie Charles said: “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.”
A Department of Education spokesman urged schools to reassure angry parents.
He said: “While the Food Standards Agency is clear there is no identified public health risk, this nevertheless represents a serious and unacceptable breach of trust.
“Suppliers and caterers should be urgently reassuring schools and parents about the action they are taking.”
Reports also said three more British meat producers have been raided on suspicion of passing off horsemeat as beef and there may be more arrests to come.
The FSA confirmed that after raids at a West Yorkshire slaughterhouse and Welsh meat processing company three other "food companies" has been visited.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article4797337.ece (8/3/2013)
Comparing the 2....
Things to consider..
In the Bbc article it seems to just always get straight to the point at just state what is going on however the sun article seems to have more of an introduction explaining where and how things have happened it seems to have a lot more of a chatty approach to writting.
Layout of the pages/ articles is determined not only by content but also by the layout, font, graphical formation and presentation aesthetically. For example the contrast between tabloids and broadsheets. The article depicting the book is less aesthetically pleasing and contains dense text; whereas the article depicting contemporary art (Damien Hirst etc..) art is displayed and exampled giving the audience a wider angle guiding them through the basics of well known contemporary art which they previously may never have experienced/seen before.
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-Differences In the Bbc article it seems to just always get straight to the point at just state what is going on however the sun article seems to have more of an introduction explaining where and how things have happened it seems to have a lot more of a chatty approach to writting.
Layout of the pages/ articles is determined not only by content but also by the layout, font, graphical formation and presentation aesthetically. For example the contrast between tabloids and broadsheets. The article depicting the book is less aesthetically pleasing and contains dense text; whereas the article depicting contemporary art (Damien Hirst etc..) art is displayed and exampled giving the audience a wider angle guiding them through the basics of well known contemporary art which they previously may never have experienced/seen before.
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