Home > Table Talk > Archives > 2008 > February > 05 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USSuspect beef: In your child’s school lunch?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that it was placing a hold on beef from a slaughterhouse that appeared to be processing cattle too sick or injured to walk. The industry term for these types of animals is downer cows, and they’re excluded from the food supply because they’re considered at higher risk for transmitting mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy).
Undercover video taken by the Humane Society of the United States last fall, at the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. in Chino, Calif., shows workers ramming old dairy cows with forklifts, prodding them with electric shocks and pouring water into their nostrils in what appears to be an attempt to get them to rise. HSUS also contends the animals pose a higher risk of picking up bacteria that cause foodborne illnesses like E. coli 015:H7, because they’re not able to stand, and are lying in feces in pens.
Westland shipped about 420,000 pounds of beef to Georgia; 40,000 pounds to a destination in Atlanta, and 378,000 to a USDA warehouse in Cedartown. The meat sent to Cedartown was then sent to food manufacturers for further processing, such as adding to spaghetti sauce or cooking for taco filling, and then shipped to Georgia school districts. Westland shipped 27 million pounds to federal nutrition programs in 2007, to 36 states.
Where is it now? School officials are searching for the beef, distributed here between October 2007 and January 2008. So far in Georgia, just Fannin County has found some of the product, 15 cases of beef crumbles and spaghetti sauce, and put them on hold. The state, which emailed school districts starting last Friday to alert them to search for the food, is waiting to hear from other districts. (Other companies besides Westland also supply beef for use in Georgia school lunches.)
Products made from the meat include spaghetti sauce, taco sauce, beef crumbles, hamburger patties and taco filling, according to the state Department of Education.
Some of the meat would have been distributed through the Emergency Food Assistance Program, which the state Department of Human Resources oversees. No word yet on what they’ve found.
The USDA hasn’t recalled this meat; rather, it is on hold while the allegations are investigated — click here for a transcript of a press conference about the beef. It’s unclear whether the beef might be released back into the school food supply after the investigation concludes. USDA officials suggested during the press conference that the animals in the video may not have been downers, or may not have entered the food supply. If that’s the agency’s finding, it could lift the hold. Meanwhile, the USDA has pulled its inspectors from the plant — effectively shutting it down — until a plan for handling cattle humanely is developed.
This is the second time in recent weeks that high-profile allegations of inhumane treatment of food animals at slaughter have surfaced. Do these videos affect what you buy? What do you think of the latest round of allegations, and the ties this company has to the federal school lunch program? Have you noticed unexpected menu changes at your child’s school since Thursday?
Permalink | Comments (22) | Post your comment | Categories: Food safety
Services »
Comments
By NOBEEF
February 6, 2008 11:14 AM | Link to this
I’m all for no beef at schools. Red Meat is becoming to dangerous to eat. Yes, other meats can be dangerous as well but there are more recalls on beef than anything else. My child attends a Charter school and they serve no red meat. They serve chicken, turkey, tofu, and salmon dishes only. My child is in the sixth grade and has always taken her school to lunch because the food was awful until now. Now she eats at school every day and loves all the meals especially the pasta meals. WOW!!!!!
By slim
February 6, 2008 11:37 AM | Link to this
what kind of anti-bovite garbage is this? Red meat can be fatty or lean. I sometimes eat bbq’d shredded beef, which is quite lean, especially after I blot up the grease from the meat, as opposed to undrained ground beef, which is very bad for you.
Overall, this is idiotic. Someone should ponder how the beef is prepared.
By get over it
February 6, 2008 11:38 AM | Link to this
Eating any animal flesh is barbaric.
By One
February 6, 2008 11:42 AM | Link to this
My family stopped eating beef about 10 yrs. ago, thank God!!!! Pork is next!!!!
By PPH
February 6, 2008 11:47 AM | Link to this
Personally, I don’t think you should take something away that people like. If you don’t like red meat, and your children don’t like red meat then don’t eat it. It’s that simple. However, school lunches are the worst!!! Not only do we have to pay a ridiculous amount of $$ for what our children are being served but the employees need to learn a thing or ten about cooking it. My daughters have both, at seperate schools, been served green chicken sandwiches. Yes, I said green. After taking it to the cafeteria worker my oldest daughter was told that she could throw it away and buy another one. How ridiculous is that?? I told them both that the next time they saw a sandwich like that they needed to bring it home to me! Of course, now they are both scared of the chicken sandwich……. On another note: One year my daughter had run out of lunch $$ in her account and I was not aware of this and after she had placed her lunch on the tray and went to the cashier she was told that she had no money and was made to throw the whole entire tray away……..they would rather her throw it away then serve it to her knowing the money would be there the next day……….I was HOT!!!! I know that I went on a bit of a tangent here but I have a real problem with the way these lunchrooms are being handled and a bigger problem with the people running them!!!! I think beef is the least of our problems!! As far as “bad beef” goes……..maybe we should take a look at the companies we do business with and where they get the products they serve/sell.
By Magenta
February 6, 2008 11:49 AM | Link to this
Slim,
Your post was laughable, because it had nothing whatsoever to do with the issue being discussed. It has nothing to do with fat or lean meat. It has to do with meat that comes from sick cattle. This is a danger.
I am not anti-meat, but our population surge and technology have combined to give us “factory farming,” which values speed and efficiency over safety. The current political structure gives businesses the upper hand over sensible governing and allows this situation to exist.
The saving grace is the tracking system that can determine which cattle were used for which product, which went where. If anything, we need to make this safeguard even stronger, until we can rethink our use of factory farming and hopefully eliminate it altogether.
By One
February 6, 2008 12:09 PM | Link to this
If you don’t like red meat, and your children don’t like red meat then don’t eat it. It’s that simple.
I agree! My daughter will not eat beef even IF it was the only item on the lunch menu. We have both skipped eating at affairs where beef was the only meat (kinda dumb to only serve beef). But I think there is a larger issue at hand here……
By slim
February 6, 2008 12:22 PM | Link to this
magenta,
Now that I read it more closely, it looks like the discrimination is only against sick or weak bovines, which I suppose is ok (even though we are not supposed to discriminate against weak or sick people).
But is anyone inspecting the chicken processing plants? Those places are probably even grosser than the slaughterhouses
By Jane
February 6, 2008 12:29 PM | Link to this
I am an avid beef eater and will continue to be. I know where my meat comes from - the benefit of having farmers for uncles/aunts. Beef has benefits as well as drawbacks - so does everything else.
As for school lunches, even when I was in school over 30 years ago the lunchroom menus were AWFUL! All part and parcel of growing up. I knew which days the food would be eatable in the cafeteria and ate then if not I could bring my lunch or wait till I got home around 4 pm
By Magenta
February 6, 2008 1:21 PM | Link to this
Slim,
You’re still cracking me up.
it looks like the discrimination is only against sick or weak bovines, which I suppose is ok (even though we are not supposed to discriminate against weak or sick people).
So far, “weak or sick people” have not shown up on the school lunch menu. Only behind the counter.
By Mr T.
February 6, 2008 1:23 PM | Link to this
Ahh…save the poor cows, but its OK to kill the unborn. Some things never, ever cease to amaze me in this country.
By Yum Critter
February 6, 2008 1:49 PM | Link to this
The only thing better than red meat on the dinner plate is puppies and kittens.
By SjR
February 6, 2008 1:55 PM | Link to this
Red meat sits in your colon and fills your body with toxins. I hope they find the meat and throw it ALL away.
By One
February 6, 2008 1:58 PM | Link to this
But is anyone inspecting the chicken processing plants? I’m sure they are just as disgusting if not more………..maybe chicken’s next!!!
Ahh…save the poor cows, but its OK to kill the unborn. WTF??????????? Dude, one has NOTHING to do with the other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By ???
February 6, 2008 1:59 PM | Link to this
Okay, I have to ask………
Is pork considered red meat, or “the other white meat”?
By HellNo
February 6, 2008 2:11 PM | Link to this
Ahh…save the poor cows, but its OK to kill the unborn.
Unless you’re a woman, with the ability to reproduce, you have not one dayum thing to say in that matter. IT IS A WOMAN’S CHOICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By SP
February 6, 2008 3:45 PM | Link to this
Eating red meat should be a personal matter. Why should we have a nanny state that tell us what and how much we should eat?
Meat packing is highly regulated and monitored - seafood is not. There is no government agency or oversight that regulates this industry. So, next time you eat that piece of catfish from Captain D’s- it can be farm raised by Uncle Billy in Mississippi or scraped off the bottom of the Mekong Delta…
Who wants sushi?
By Troy
February 6, 2008 4:04 PM | Link to this
If the HSUS cared so much about animals and were worried about this situation, why did they wait several months to release this? Just goes to show their true colors. If there were truly concerned about animal welfare, they would have released this information immediately.
By Yasmine
February 8, 2008 8:46 AM | Link to this
i love BEEF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By FCM
February 8, 2008 12:43 PM | Link to this
Could this explain why my children came home sick as dogs (one last week and one this week)? I mean they puked their guts out. Then slept for 12 hours and seemed THANKFULLY better…I figured it was just the flu…..but one had a hamburger that afternoon at school…so maybe?
By FCM
February 8, 2008 12:44 PM | Link to this
Could this explain why my children came home sick as dogs (one last week and one this week)? I mean they puked their guts out. Then slept for 12 hours and seemed THANKFULLY better…I figured it was just the flu…..but one had a hamburger that afternoon at school…so maybe?
One child did get sick on the Peter Pan a couple of times before the recall was announced….poor kid…but I thought there was a peanut allergy developing
By brian
February 12, 2008 5:54 PM | Link to this
i cant believe it. im starting to realize beef is barbaric. hooray to the person called “get over it”.