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| Halal meals will meet strict
rules |
No animals to be stunned before
slaughter
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Cllr Janet Guthrie: meals ‘back on track’
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THE strictest and most traditional interpretation of religious
slaughter will be required for Camden’s halal school dinners
from next year, it has been revealed.
Under the rules – likely to prove controversial with animal
rights protesters – animals may not be stunned in any way before
they are slaughtered.
The rules mark a change from halal meat supplied to Camden schools
in the past, which came from animals stunned before slaughter under
the “New Zealand” method – a fudge of conventional
western techniques and traditional halal slaughter designed to appeal
to moderate Muslims and animal rights protesters alike.
The new guidelines were brought in after furious Muslim parents
complained that their children were not being treated equally.
The row broke out when the New Journal revealed that halal meat
was secretly introduced and then removed from all school dinners
in Camden last year after a non-Muslim parent at Eleanor Palmer
School in Kentish Town complained.
The new rules were drawn up by a panel of senior Camden Muslims
and accepted in full by Camden Council, which has included them
in tender documents supplied to catering firms bidding to take over
the school dinner service next year.
Only four primary schools, Rhyl, Brecknock, Argyle and Edith Neville,
currently provide halal dinners but the council wants to ensure
that every Muslim child who wants halal food can have it when the
new contract comes into force next September.
A decision on whether to offer only halal food or a mixture of halal
and non-halal food will be left to individual schools, although
providing a mixed service is expected to cost slightly more.
The cost of school dinners is to rise to £1.70 per meal from
September, with 60-70p spent on ingredients, an increase on the
current 50p spend.
Parents, teachers and pupils have been demanding improvements in
school dinners since Scolarest, the current contractor, took over
in 2002.
Several schools, including Brecknock and St Paul’s primaries,
have opted out of the Scolarest deal, because of their concerns
about the quality of the dinners.
But improvements at other schools this year following the parent-led
campaign have won praise from teachers.
At a Town Hall meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Commission on
Tuesday night, Labour councillor Janet Guthrie admitted school dinners
had “become an embarrassment to the council” but added:
“I’m pleased that we now seem to be getting back on track.” |
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