TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Schools Got A Third Of Recalled Beef, Officials Say

ADVERTISEMENT

By GILLIAN FLACCUS, The Associated Press

Published: February 22, 2008

LOS ANGELES - More than a third of the 143 million pounds of California beef recalled last week went to school lunch programs, with at least 20 million pounds consumed, officials with the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Thursday.

About 50 million pounds of the meat went to schools, said Eric Steiner, deputy administrator of USDA's Food and Nutrition Service's special nutrition programs.

Of that amount, about 20 million pounds have been eaten, 15 million pounds are on hold at storage facilities and 15 million pounds are still being traced, he said.

Officials said, however, that they still weren't able to provide the names of all the places the meat wound up.

"Sitting here today, I cannot tell you how many locations the product has gone to," said Kenneth Peterson, of USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service. "Our focus is identifying the locations and making sure the product is under control."

USDA shut down Chino-based Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. and issued the nation's largest beef recall after the Humane Society of the United States released undercover video of workers kicking and shoving sick and crippled cows and forcing them to stand with electric prods, forklifts and water hoses.

The plant produces about a fifth of all the meat in the federal school lunch programs, said Bill Sessions, associate deputy administrator for livestock and seed programs with USDA's agriculture marketing service.

One of the workers accused of abusing the debilitated cattle in the video, Luis Sanchez, turned himself in to Chino police Wednesday, San Bernardino County prosecutors said Thursday.

Sanchez pleaded not guilty Thursday in San Bernardino County Superior Court to three misdemeanors involving illegal movement of sick or injured cattle. He was scheduled for a pretrial hearing Feb. 28 and remained in custody with bail set at $15,000, Deputy District Attorney Debbie Ploghaus said.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT