TAYSIDE’S top football clubs have vowed to continue serving meat pies, despite Aberdeen FC dropping the matchday favourites after being caught up in the horsemeat scandal.
Supporters at the Aberdeen v Ross County match last night were to told there were no mince pies available after the caterer for Pittodrie found traces of horse in its products.
French firm Sodexo has withdrawn all of its frozen beef products from the UK as a precaution after three of them tested positive for horse DNA.
The caterer is one of the latest suppliers to be named as a victim of a suspected scam allowing horsemeat into the British food chain.
However, Dundee FC and St Johnstone FC have both confirmed they are confident in their club pies. It is understood Dundee United use the same supplier as Dundee.
Jim Thomson, operations manager at Dundee FC, said the club gets its pies from caterers The Lindley Group, which has assured the club testing has been done and there is no horse meat in its pies.
A spokesperson from St Johnstone said: “We do not get our pies from the same source as Aberdeen FC.
“We do our own catering it is not contracted out, so we will continue to serve beef pies.”
Caterers for Dunfermline Athletic confirmed their beef products were horse-free.
The Pars source their stadium savouries from Edinburgh-based Saltire Hospitality, which said its beef products were 100% bovine.
David Peters, managing director of Saltire Hospitality, said: “We use a local butcher for our pie meat, both for our hearty pie and Scotch pie, made in-house by our sister company Saltire Patisserie Ltd.”
The Courier was shown a copy of correspondence from Saltire’s meat supplier Shaws Fine Meats, stating its product labels already included slaughter information and had now been updated to show country of origin.
Andrew Deans from Shaws said: “I confirm that all beef products supplied by Shaws Fine Meats are sourced 100% from the bovine species.
“In addition to purchasing livestock from local farms, we only source from EC approved suppliers who process bovine, ovine and porcine (beef, lamb and pork) species only. We have never processed any equine material and are not linked in any way to the current issue. We have complete traceability on all products.”
Catering at Raith Rovers is taken care of by club director Mario Caira, who was on holiday abroad yesterday.
Turnbull Hutton, chairman of the club, said: “As far as I know, I haven’t heard anything about it being an issue.”
Additional supplies of chicken and macaroni pies were on sale at Aberdeen’s Pittodrie stadium.
A Dons spokesman apologised for any inconvenience but said the ban was part of the club’s commitment to food safety.
He said: “Sodexo, AFC’s catering partner, took the decision to withdraw all frozen and processed beef products for which they do not have evidence of DNA testing.”
arobertson@thecourier.co.uk