Parents at Blairgowrie High School have continued to raise concerns at the standard of food being served to their children after a mum complained about a turkey burger given to her daughter.
Sharon Morgan shared a picture of the offending burger to social media with the caption “would any of you eat it?” prompting meal providers Tayside Contracts to apologise for the food served to the Perthshire pupil, saying they “fell short ” of their high standards.
However fellow parent Debbie Walsh has now shown The Courier other meals being served to children at the school where her daughter attends S1, saying the turkey burger was not an isolated incident.
Complaints have also emerged regarding bacon and chicken rolls served at Perth Grammar School.
Debbie said: “My daughter has been bringing home pictures of the food she’s been buying and I’ve been thinking ‘are you kidding’?
“When I was at high school the lunches used to be very good.
“When we were at the school the cooks used to be able to make up home-made macaroni and things but now now they have to use what ever Perth and Kinross Council gives them.
“I think it’s an absolute disgrace what they are serving kids.
“It’s not just one item that you wouldn’t serve to a dog, it’s a lot of items.
“They give kids from P1 to P3 free school meals because some kids can’t get a proper meals at home.
“Why are they then giving kids rubbish they wouldn’t eat.”
SNP councillor Dave Doogan said that Tayside Contracts needed to take on board the complaints and reiterated his belief that rolling out the frozen school meal plans would do nothing to benefit the dinners being served to pupils in Perth and Kinross.
Mr Doogan said: “This situation underlines the importance of meeting the Scottish Government’s nutritional guidelines for healthy eating while at the same time providing our young learners with tasty appealing food, prepared here in Perth and Kinross kitchens, and served quickly and efficiently.
“I recently asked the managing director of Tayside Contracts how we ensure customer feedback from pupils is fed back accurately via the schools and the council to Tayside Contracts and was assured that this a matter of ongoing dialogue.
“I know for a fact that our Tayside Contacts kitchen staff here in Perth and Kinross work very hard within challenging parameters of cost and regulation to provide pupils with tasty healthy meals.
“Tayside contacts need to be responsive, like any other organisation, to customer feedback and I will continue to scrutinise their processes in this regard.”
Tayside Contracts said they take all complaints seriously but they had nothing to add from their earlier apology.
Carol Haxton, Tayside Contracts’ facilities business manager, said: “Tayside Contracts produces over six million high quality school meals per year and our quality management systems and the skill levels of our cooks stand comparison with the very best.
“However, on this occasion we clearly fell short of the high standards which we demand of ourselves and for which we are extremely sorry.”
