Exeter Royal Academy for Deaf Education chooses fresh food after horse meat revelations

The Exeter Royal Academy for Deaf Education has responded to the news that one of its catering suppliers, Sodexo, has found traces of horse meat in one of its frozen beef products, by saying: "Of the 80 products recalled as a precaution by Sodexo, the Deaf Academy only uses four, and we have immediately removed them from our kitchens.

"The Academy is committed to the highest standards of health and safety for our students and we were awarded the best possible food hygiene rating by Exeter City Council last year. The majority of our food is cooked on site, from scratch, using fresh ingredients, including fresh beef. All ingredients used by the Academy are fully traceable.

"Due to the limited number of withdrawn products supplied to us, we are largely unaffected by the recall. In the light of the information received from Sodexo, we have immediately reviewed our catering. We have now switched to using all fresh, rather than frozen, minced and diced beef in our meals. The sausages that have been withdrawn will be replaced by fresh pork sausages from the butcher. We are informing our students of these changes today, and we have written to all the parents of our students informing them of these developments.

Meanwhile, Sodexo has reported that it has "had a pro-active programme in place to ensure that there is no horse meat in its supply chain. We demanded written assurances from across our supply chain that the products we purchase did not contain horse meat, and additionally implemented an internal sampling programme. Despite repeated guarantees from our suppliers, our sampling has identified frozen beef products which tested positive for equine DNA. This situation is totally unacceptable.

"We felt the only appropriate response was to withdraw not only this product but all frozen beef products. We will only re-admit into our catering operations products that have affirmatively passed DNA testing, pursuant to laboratory test criteria. We have notified the FSA of our findings and will assist fully in its investigation. We have also launched our own investigation to understand how this regrettable situation arose.

"Food safety, traceability and quality remain the top priority for Sodexo and this is why we have taken these steps. Sodexo's Tillery Valley Foods business which provides meals to the healthcare sector is not affected by the above."

Sodexo also supplies food for Exeter Crown Court and Lympstone Marine Camp.