Wiltshire food suppliers say their beef products have passed the horse test (From This Is Wiltshire)

Authorities in Wiltshire have moved to put residents at ease that no traces of horse meat have been found in food supplied to organisations in the region.

The scandal has seen horse meat found in beef products sold at supermarkets including Tesco, the Co-op, Lidl, Iceland and Aldi with the products being taken off shelves notably Findus frozen beef lasagne, made by a French food processing company, was found to have up to 100 per cent horse meat in them.

Other products, at Sainsbury’s, Asda, Waitrose and Morrisons have also been withdrawn as a precaution.

Following the outbreak, the Food Standards Agency launched an inquiry into the issue ordering food companies to carry out tests on all processed beef products, specifically asking some local authorities to carry out tests with Wiltshire Council not being asked.

Wiltshire Councillor Keith Humphries, cabinet member for Public Health and Protection Services, said: “We’ve not been asked because we don’t have cold stores and processing plants. Everybody is on the case, doing everything we possibly can, food in Wiltshire is safe.

“Clearly, there’s been some naughtiness going on at a big scale and If something is labelled as beef then it should be beef and for it not to be is reprehensible.”

Contract catering firm Sodexo, which supplies food to around 20 schools in Wiltshire, says it hasn't found any horse meat in its products.

A spokesman said: “Additional testing of beef products has been implemented to support the assurances we have already received from our suppliers and to underpin our already robust food supply assurance processes.

Hospitals have also been seeking assurances from their suppliers that their are no traces of horse meat in they food they give patients.

Roger Thomas, Interim Director of Estates and Facilities Management at Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “Our main food supplier to the trust has already confirmed that they have not supplied products or ingredients sourced from any of the meat suppliers cited by the Food Standards Agency, and that all meat products do not contain DNA of any species other than that on the label.”

A spokesman for the Royal United Hospital Bath said: “When the issue of potential contamination of beef products in the UK first emerged, our biggest food supplier immediately commissioned DNA tests on beef raw materials and finished products, results have shown that the meat is 100 per cent clear of any traces of horse meat.”

Trowbridge food firm Apetito, which supplies hospitals and care homes as well as having a Wiltshire Farm Foods home delivery franchise, carried tests onits raw beef and found all its  products contained 100 per cent beef.

A spokesman said: “We do not use the French manufacturer implicated in the Lasagne incident. All our beef suppliers have been audited by the apetito technical team and Apetito has never traded, purchased or produced equine products.”