Shop local, buy local

Cheshire East Council Leader Michael Jones is encouraging people to 'buy local and eat local' to ensure they get only the highest-quality meat.

He urged shoppers to support their local butchers and farmers to ensure they are getting top-notch beef, pork, lamb, poultry and other meat products.

It comes amid growing concern about the scandal of horse meat illegally finding its way into some cheaper processed foods.

Councillor Jones said: "Cheshire East farmers, local butchers and farm shops need and deserve our full support.

"I buy lots of local meat. I have an excellent local butcher, who makes fantastic sausages – but there are lots of other great local shops and suppliers across the Borough.

"Farmers in Cheshire East need to be supported by our eating and buying from local butchers who butcher meat on site and process it on site from locally-sourced, trusted suppliers.

"Cheshire is famous for the quality of its meats and farm produce – and people are justifiably proud of its high reputation. We need to show our support by voting with our wallets and purses."

It is also good to know that Cheshire East Council-supplied schools all receive their fresh meat from local butchers, based within Cheshire East, who are supplied by local farms.

These butchers do not buy in processed meat and only use fully passported/documented carcasses from local suppliers and make their own sausages and burgers, etc.

Cheshire East carried out a rigorous procurement exercise for the fresh meat supplied to its catering-serviced schools. The fresh meat was procured to assist Cheshire East gaining its Food For Life accreditation from the Soil Association.

All Cheshire East Catering schools have been awarded the Bronze Food For Life accreditation, with one recently gaining a silver award for the joint work carried out with the school and catering service.

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