BRITISH beef could soon be back on the menu in Bury schools - but only if there is a demand for it.

Bury Council's competitive services committee councillors had planned to discuss beef at their latest meeting - and make a decision on whether to reintroduce it.

But the item was pulled at the last minute to give councillors and officers more time to chew it over.

Competitive services committee chairman Tony Isherwood said: "I understand that about half of the local authorities in this country have re-introduced beef in one form or another."

The Department of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture Food and Fisheries have announced that British beef is safe to consume and free from BSE.

But Coun Isherwood stressed that it would not come back in Bury if parents didn't want it.

He explained: "Beef was originally taken off the menu after parents expressed their concerns.

"Apart from the health considerations we are a commercial department. The parents are the customers and we don't want to sell something that they may not want to buy."

Coun Isherwood added that if the public backed the move, beef would be back on the menu in the "near future", subject to necessary safeguards.

Cuts of beef set to return to primary and secondary schools are shoulder, topside, sirloin, shin, skirt and chuck beef.

Burgers made from British beef would only be served in secondary schools, a precaution to further reassure parents.

No offal, sausages or manufactured dishes containing beef would be purchased.

Beef was axed from the Bury schools menu in December 1995 after a national health crisis.

Since then beef - including foreign cuts - has been banned and substitutes used in meals.

But this is increasingly causing what the council describes as "menu fatigue".

A public outcry resulted when a link was found between BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, so-called Mad Cow Disease) in cattle and the rare CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease) in humans.

Coun Isherwood added that should beef return, children or staff who still did not wish to eat it would be offered a second hot dish plus a salad dish as alternatives.

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