Provenance is crucial!

Knowing the provenance!

Over recent weeks, we have seen some pretty large operators and food retailers hitting us with revelations that horse meat has been found in their produce.  Everyone from general consumers to hospitals and schools have been affected by this, with one thing in common, the end user, in this case the consumer doesn’t know where the food has come from, or apparently what it contains.  But even more of a scary thought was the trail of blame that each supplier put out, that their meat had come from somewhere else, with trails crossing backwards and forwards across Europe.

Now most of the products found have been discovered in what you would call the ‘ready meal’ department which has been going through a renaissance in recent years as more and more ready meals have been sold each year, especially with each supermarket setting up its own ‘Dine in for 2’ offers (It should also be pointed out that M&S, the creators of this meal deal and whose produce relies greatly on ready meal products has found no traces, as their Chief Exec proudly boasted last week).  For me though the scariest thought impacts on the discovery by Lancashire Council that 40 of their schools had been supplied horse meat, unknowingly within the cottage pies that they had been supplied. 

For me, a father of two children who will soon be entering mainstream education in the near future, this was both surprising and shocking.  Shocking that the horse meat got into the system at all and surprise that schools were selling ready meals to primary school children instead of making fresh on site, especially with dishes as simple as Cottage Pie and lasagne.  I know that no harm can come from horse meat itself, but if you order beef on a menu, you usually would expect to receive it. 

Now I am not daft and realise the argument of cost is banded around by the various authorities, who at the same time are trying to cut millions of deficit off their council running costs, but it does surprise me that they feel fit to put the health of the children that they are helping to develop at risk by providing a product that they don’t know its contents or its provenance.

In recruitment I hear the word provenance a lot, mainly as I deal with good quality contract caterers who although in it for a profit, are happy to produce a product that they are proud in, and in turn expect the people they employ to share this belief.  This almost always means producing the dish on site from fresh ingredients, and although the costs may be up, the long term take up of school meals usually goes up, which in effect eradicates the cost, and overall provides the children with good quality fresh food.  

Fresh food is on the whole is healthy food, you know what is going into a dish and obviously this is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to ingredients that we don’t know about.  I realise that a trip to your local butcher or an organic farmer is going to be more expensive, but you at least know where the food has come from, you can trace right back to the original source, and know that the meat on your plate is 100% beef etc.  There are a number of ways to counter the cost that seems to be creeping up, in order to facilitate this extra cost, meat free monday’s was something championed by Paul McCartney in recent years and this makes good sense as the cost difference help. 

So lets hope that this scare over the past 6 weeks has given the major food producers and suppliers a jolt in the right direction and that they will now be a little more careful about what goes into their products, lets also hope that councils like Lancashire start to put the health and well being of their pupils ahead of cost and maybe even look into producing on site, like they used to, without fear of not knowing what they are serving.  Overall only good can come from this and hopefully will provide us with a better offering next time we go to the supermarket or order online or more importantly what our children eat at school.