Someone over there in Europe, please, can you just make it stop? Reading about the ever spiraling horsemeat scandal hurts our horse-loving hearts so, but it doesn’t sound like the scandal is going away any time soon. UK officials say horse DNA was found in cottage pies sent to 47 schools in Lancashire, but the kids probably didn’t eat much of it. Whew.

According to the BBC, analysts  for the Food Standards Agency discovered the product was contaminated late on Thursday, but that children would’ve consumed only a “minute” amount of horsemeat, if any.

Those pies have been removed from kitchens and county officials say they’re staying vigilant in the face of the horsemeat problem plaguing much of Europe right now.

“We share the concerns people have about what is clearly a major problem in food supplies across the UK and Europe,” said the Lancashire County Councillor. “Because of those concerns we decided to seek extra assurance that our external suppliers were not providing any products containing horse meat DNA, and one of the products has returned a positive result.”

She adds that relatively few schools in the area use the product. And while it’s likely not a food safety issue, meals that say they contain one thing and really contain another aren’t acceptable.

“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.”

For now, beef is entirely off the menu at the school.

Other schools districts in Northern Ireland took precautions in light of the horsemeat problem and pulled beef burgers from school menus as well, until it was confirmed that all the meat was indeed, beef.

Consumers on this side of the pond are probably wondering/worrying if the horsemeat issue will make its way across the Atlantic, but that’s highly unlikely, health officials tell ABC News. A U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesman says that’s because we don’t slaughter horses for consumption nor do we import beef from any of the companies or countries connected to the scandal overseas.

Horsemeat found in some school dinners [BBC]
European Horse Meat Scandal Not Likely to Happen in U.S. [ABC News]

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