A SCOTTISH local authority has stopped serving school pupils any frozen meat products as the horsemeat scandal gathers pace.

West Dunbartonshire Council has withdrawn all frozen meat products until national investigations are concluded.

On Friday, Scotland Excel, the procurement organisation that serves local authorities and public sector organisations across Scotland, advised Scottish Councils not to use any current stocks they hold of frozen beef products, including frozen beef mince.

This followed their previous guidance to place a hold on the use of all frozen beef burgers, following the discovery of the presence of horse DNA in a frozen burger at North Lanarkshire Council.

A spokesperson for Scotland Excel said: "This is a purely precautionary measure and. At this time, no other samples of frozen beef products have returned a positive result for horse DNA."

West Dunbartonshire Council said that none of the tested meat products used in its schools and care homes have been found to show traces of horse DNA.

The council's decision came on the day that furniture giant Ikea withdrew a batch of its Swedish meatballs from sale in UK stores after horse meat was discovered by Czech authorities.

The Swedish company said meatballs would still be available to buy in its stores and only one batch was being withdrawn as a precaution until further tests on it could be done.

A spokesman said internal tests had shown no problems up to now.

He said in a statement: "Ikea takes the test result from the Czech Republic authorities showing indications of traces of horse meat seriously.

"The concerned production batch of meatballs has been withdrawn from the Swedish Food Market in the Ikea stores."