Laurel officials find recalled beef
Laurel Highlands School District officials announced that while they discovered eight cases of recalled beef in the district’s warehouse Wednesday morning, students and staff did not consume the meat.
Gerald Loftstead, district food services director, said that after discovering that Laurel Highlands was among 200 schools in Pennsylvania to receive recalled beef, food service officials checked the freezer storage at the middle school and discovered eight cases with item numbers that match the recalled meat. Loftstead said Wednesday afternoon that the recalled beef, part of the largest recall of beef in the nation’s history, was delivered to the school Jan. 25. He said that no recalled meat was consumed.
“We are using beef we received in September right now,” Loftstead said. “It wasn’t until this morning that we learned we had received any of the recalled beef.”
Loftstead said the district was notified of the recalled beef by e-mail from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
He said he now must follow federal guidelines for proper disposal of the beef.
“I have to take the beef to a landfill or incinerator and have it disposed of or destroyed,” Loftstead said, noting that he is now waiting for paperwork to remove the meat.
The USDA on Sunday ordered the recall of 143 million pounds of frozen beef from Westland/Hallmark Meat Co., which provided meat to school lunch programs.
While 200 schools across the state were shipped the recalled beef, Laurel Highlands is the only school district in Fayette and Greene counties to have received it.
The recall was announced after undercover video shot at the meat packing company in Chino, Calif., showed workers shocking, kicking and shoving debilitated cattle with forklifts.
According to USDA guidelines an inspector must review sick or injured animals, called “downer” cattle, before they can be slaughtered.
Federal regulations call for keeping downed cattle out of the food supply because they may pose a higher risk of contamination from E. coli, salmonella or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) because they typically wallow in feces and their immune systems are often weak, according to the Associated Press.
The recall affects beef products dating to Feb. 1, 2006. Agriculture officials estimate that about 37 million pounds of the recalled beef went to school programs, but they believe most of the meat probably has already been eaten.
“I am dismayed at the in-humane handling of cattle that has resulted in the violation of food safety regulations at the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co.,” Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said in a press release. “It is extremely unlikely that these animals were at risk for BSE because of the multiple safeguards; however, this action is necessary because plant procedures violated USDA regulations.”
Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. remains under investigation.