More on the shipments of potentially tainted beef to public schools, including Plainfield's.
Thursday afternoon, the school district forwarded to me a memo from Sodexho, the company contracted to operate the district's cafeterias, concerning the ground beef recall -- view the memo online here.
Briefly, the USDA put a hold on this ground beef on January 30. Suppliers who had received the product -- including Sodexho -- were to notify end users such as the Plainfield schools to put the product on hold. This was done.
On February 17, the USDA mandated the destruction of the ground beef, and the memo says Sodexho and the district complied.
There is no mention in the memo of whether or not any of the suspect beef was ever served in the school's cafeterias, though the memo says there have been no reports of illness alleged to the ground beef product. Nevertheless, Sodexho and the district have suspended serving ANY beef products until further notice, replacing beef with turkey, chicken or pork.
You may recall that the whole episode began with the posting of a video on YouTube showing the producer in question -- Westland/Hallmark -- processing 'downed' cattle. (You can watch the YouTube video here. Warning: Graphic content!) These are cattle that are too sick or weak to walk into the slaughtering process. The video exposed inhumane treatment that is banned, including using electric shocks to force the cattle to stand and move. One shot showed a forklift lifting an animal and moving it forward. Sick animals could potentially taint the food supply.
The USDA, which is supposed to monitor these facilities, did NOT act until after the matter was exposed on YouTube.
In case you think that the USDA is really watching out for those of us at the end of the supply chain, you will be disabused by a story (see here) in Friday's Washington Post, where Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer told Congress Thursday --
that he would not endorse an outright ban on "downer" cows entering the food supply or back stiffer penalties for regulatory violations by meat-processing plants...Your government servants, working for you.
Makes you feel real safe, doesn't it?
-- Dan Damon
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2 comments:
Hi Dan,
Please read the memo carefully.
It was stated that Sodexo reviewed the lot numbers given from the meat company of ALL the tainted beef and NONE of them were sent to Plainfield. Please let's make sure your readers who can also view this letter on line are not unduly frightened.
Vickey Sheppard
Thank you Board member Vickey Sheppard!
I read the memo through carefully several times before posting the story. Sodexho does not flat-out state that none of the questionable beef was ever served.
It says that the HOLD was complied with, and subsequently supplies were destroyed.
Further, it says the lot numbers were 'just recently received', implying SINCE February 17 (which is nearly two weeks ago now). All this is a bit late in a story that has been developing for many days now.
I don't want to frighten students or their families, but since a great deal of time has passed, there is no beef in the system, and no one has gotten sick, we should be OK on this one.
I have been following this story for some time, and radio interviews of some food service directors have brought forward the fact that while everyone complied -- once they found out -- it was far more difficult to state with certainty that NONE of the meat had been served.
Sodexho could clarify this by making a flat-out statement -- if it can -- that it did not serve any of the questionable beef, and that would settle it.
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