A trust has confirmed no horsemeat is contained in meals for hospital patients.

Barts Health NHS Trust, which manages Whipps Cross Hospital in Leytonstone, has said that food given to patients there has tested negative for the meat.

A spokeswoman for the health trust said: “Barts Health NHS Trust have been assured by their food suppliers for Whipps Cross University Hospital, that the food products they provide have been tested and no traces of horse meat have been found.”

The announcement comes a day after Waltham Forest Council insisted no horsemeat was contained in children’s school meals, despite not having carried out tests on food suppliers for Waltham Forest Catering.

High street supermarkets including Tesco, The Co-operative, Aldi , Asda and Lidl were recently forced to withdraw products found to contain horsemeat from their shelves.

Findus lasagne dishes were dropped from Tesco’s line of goods after its French supplier, Comigel, raised concerns about the type of meat used in it.

Another French supplier, Spanghero, has been accused of passing off horsemeat in meals labelled as beef, but has had its production licence partially restored.