Monday's Internet Edition, May 12, 2008.
No Sicknesses Reported, Health Threat Minimal, Officials Say
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Students here were served approximately 2,400 burger patties before the meat was recalled, according to Daughn Baker, child nutrition director. Baker is quick to point out, however, that no one has been sickened by the meat, part of a U.S. Department of Agriculture recall of 143 million pounds of beef produced by a Southern California slaughterhouse and distributed by Westland/Hallmark Meat Company.
Approximately 37 million pounds of the beef went to school programs, and 25 counties in North Carolina received the meat.
Baker said she was first notified on Feb. 4 by the N.C. Department of Agriculture that there was a potential for a recall. That notification asked food service programs to check their supplies and put any meat on hold until they received further notice.
Baker said they had just gotten the meat in at the end of January, so it was served from then until they received the notification, and it has been on hold, in the freezer, since.
“Very little did go out,” Baker said. “Ten cases at the most went out for consumption.”
Each case holds 240 patties.
The last notification said the hold should be extended until Feb. 19, while procedures for how to deal with the meat are written.
The recall was prompted after an undercover video showed possibly sick and crippled animals being shoved with forklifts. Federal guidelines call for keeping potentially sick animals out of the food system because they may transmit E. coli, salmonella or mad cow disease.
To date, according to the USDA, no illnesses have been linked to the meat, and the health threat is said to be small ... subscribe to the Davie County Enterprise Record, P.O. Box 99, Mocksville, N.C. 27028.