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Meat Recall; 2 unopened boxes found
Topic Started: Feb 20 2008, 04:40 PM (440 Views)
Mrs.M
Veteran
http://hometownlife.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti...NEWS10/80220022
LPS won't serve taco meat after beef recalled

Livonia Public Schools has isolated two unopened boxes of taco meat containing beef from a company that was subject of a recall.

The district is waiting for word from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Michigan Department of Education about how to dispose of the product, said Lisa Levesque, direct of business services for the district.

There is no evidence the meat is contaminated and there have been no reports of sickness from anyone who ate the beef. Rather, the USDA reported that the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. of Chino, Calif. violated food safety regulations by treating cattle inhumanely.

The company provided ground beef to schools throughout the country via the National School Lunch Program.

I'd agree with you, but then we'd both be WRONG.
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Mrs.M
Veteran
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/15332381/detail.html
Recalled Beef Piling Up At More Mich. Schools

POSTED: 12:15 pm EST February 18, 2008
UPDATED: 2:33 pm EST February 20, 2008

Meat from the largest beef recall ever in the United States is piling up at several Michigan school districts.

At least 19 districts in the state said they have stopped using products from Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. following Sunday's U.S. Department of Agriculture-ordered recall of 143 million pounds of frozen beef.

The following local districts have confirmed that they have received some of the recalled beef in the form of taco meat, chili and burger patties:


Novi Community School District
Mt. Clemens Community Schools
East Detroit Public Schools
Centerline Public Schools
Ferndale Public Schools
Huron Valley Public Schools
Warren Consolidated District
Brandon Public Schools in Northville
Detroit Public Schools
Birmingham Public Schools
Roseville Public Schools
Rochester Community Schools
Farmington Public Schools
Plymouth/Canton Community Schools

No illnesses have been connected to the recalled beef.

Grand Rapids Public Schools must throw out 10 tons of hamburger, while the Ann Arbor Public Schools has about 200 pounds of quarantined beef.

Portage Public Schools and West Ottawa Public Schools, both in West Michigan, also say they received meat that originated from the California slaughterhouse that is the subject of an animal abuse investigation.

Two Saginaw County school districts have set aside recalled meat. Saginaw Township Community Schools plans to dump or send back a half-ton of frozen ground beef, mostly in hamburger patties and meatballs. The food service staff served some of the recalled products, Superintendent Gerald Dawkins told The Saginaw News.

Carrollton Public Schools has 40 pounds of the recalled meat in storage. Superintendent Craig Douglas said he doesn't know whether students had consumed any affected beef before the recall.

Traverse City Area Public Schools has between 1,500 and 2,000 pounds of beef that needs to be tossed. Kristen Misiak, the district's food service director, told the Traverse City Record-Eagle that staff members are awaiting instructions from the state before they get rid of the products.

Detroit Public Schools got a shipment of 150 cases of frozen chili and taco meat, but officials say none of it was eaten.

The Lansing and St. Johns districts in central Michigan also have stocks of the beef, WILX-TV reports.

"We don't have any way of knowing who got what beef," Michigan Department of Education spokesman Martin Ackley said Monday.

The recall affects beef products dating to Feb. 1, 2006.

The state sent notices to Michigan school districts about two weeks ago after receiving the recall information from the USDA, Ackley said.

"We have periodic recalls now and then, but nothing to this magnitude," he said. "I'm glad we haven't had any reported illness to it and they caught it before a lot (of the beef) has been used."

Federal officials suspended operations at Chino, Calif.-based Westland/Hallmark after an undercover video from the Humane Society of the United States surfaced showing crippled and sick animals being shoved with forklifts.

Authorities said the video showed workers kicking, shocking and otherwise abusing "downer" animals that were apparently too sick or injured to walk into the slaughterhouse. Some animals had water forced down their throats, San Bernardino County prosecutor Michael Ramos said.

Two former employees were charged Friday.

The health threat likely is small, officials say.

The beef would have been sent to school lunch programs from processors in the form of meat products like hamburger patties.

"The processors are letting the school districts know if the beef they received is part of the recall," Ackley said.

Some of the hamburger being recalled already was served to students in Portage.

"It was in our taco sauce and our spaghetti sauce," Portage district food service manager Lance Gerry told the Kalamazoo Gazette. "We've been serving those products for a while."

Cases of the beef are being stored by the Portage district, which stopped serving the meat products on Jan. 31 after notification by the USDA.

"We're trying to get an accurate assessment of how much we have," Gerry said.

Meanwhile, districts pulling the beef products will have to look for a way to replace them on the menu, Ackley said.

"They can serve other things in their school lunches," he said.

For extensive coverage on the meat recall: USDA Makes Nation's Largest Beef Recall
I'd agree with you, but then we'd both be WRONG.
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Mrs.M
Veteran
http://www.hometownlife.com/apps/pbcs.dll/...EWS03/802210511

District freezes use of recalled beef
By TONY BRUSCATO
Staff Writer


The Plymouth-Canton Schools food service department has removed 27 cases of frozen meat from lunchroom freezers in school buildings throughout the district after discovering they were packaged by Westland/Hallmark Meat Co., the meat packing company ordered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to recall 143 million pounds of potentially contaminated frozen beef.

"We were notified (Monday) by (food supplier) Sodexho and put it on hold," said Mary Holaly, a district spokesperson. "Some of the beef was used for lunches before the recall.

"We also receive beef from Tyson," Holaly added, "but pretty much all beef served by the district is on hold until further notice. We're using caution with all beef until we get an all-clear from the supplier."

The recall was ordered after the federal government confirmed that so-called "downer cows" - those so injured or sick that they can't stand up, and which could be diseased - were processed and entered into the nation's food supply by the Chino, Calif., operation.

"We had 810 pounds of the recalled beef, and we're awaiting word from the USDA for the next steps, what to do with the product and the plan for reimbursement," Holaly said.

The USDA recall was ordered last week while Plymouth-Canton students were on winter break.

"There may be some changes in the upcoming menus," Holaly said. "However, it's not difficult to come up with beefless, nutritious meals."

There have not been any reports of students becoming ill from eating the recalled beef.


I'd agree with you, but then we'd both be WRONG.
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