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Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Suspect 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?
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Abby Normal Eating
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“I won’t eat anything that has intelligent life, but I’d gladly eat a network executive or a politician.” — Marty Feldman
Grasshoppers. Fish eyes. Jellyfish. Roasted guinea pig. Snakes. And yes, politicians. We’ve all seen Anthony Bourdain do it, but what’s the WEIRDEST thing you’ve ever eaten?
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