British chicken on school meals menu

Moray Council has responded to concerns about the origin of chicken served up in school canteens by sourcing supplies from the UK.

It emerged earlier this month that the council’s main supplier of food ingredients imported chicken from Thailand.

There was no suggestion that the Thai chicken was inferior or failed to comply with food standards.

However, in the light of the publicity Moray Council’s catering service decided to seek a supplier closer to home and from the start of the new term the chicken served up to hundreds of schoolchildren every day will be British poultry.

A council spokesman said: “Our catering service prides itself in sourcing food supplies from local sources wherever possible and this latest switch is in line with that policy.

“All our meat products are already supplied by Fraser Brothers of Forres who also supply around half of all the chicken which is served up in our schools, with the remainder being provided by a national supplier.

“The situation now is that the butcher is sourcing all of our chicken from the UK. Although the costs involved are slightly higher, we feel comfortable using home-based suppliers and believe that parents will also be reassured by the provenance of the chicken supplies.”

Moray Council area stretches from Tomintoul in the south to the shores of the Moray Firth, from Keith in the east to Forres in the west. The council and its 4,500 employees respond to the needs of 95,510 residents in this beautiful part of Scotland, which nestles between Aberdeenshire and the Highlands.

Famous for its colony of dolphins, fabulous beaches and more malt whisky distilleries than any where else in Scotland, Moray is a thriving area and a great place to live.

Headquartered in  Elgin, the administrative capital of Moray.