Beef yanked from Phila, area schools

A Philadelphia parents' group sharply criticized the city school district and the USDA this morning for not acting earlier to recall possibly tainted beef served to children in school cafeterias.

An alert went out yesterday to 196 school districts from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture advising them to remove most beef products from the schools.

The beef may have originated at a California meat packing plant that slaughtered "downer" cattle and distributed the meat through the the USDA's School Lunch Program, state officials said.

More than 143 million pounds of raw and frozen beef products were "voluntarily recalled" last week by Hallmark-Westland Meat Packing of Chico, Ca.

The Philadelphia School District, the largest district in the state, banned beef Tuesday from the schools after being contacted Tuesday by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

Other regional schools and districts affected by the recall include Abington, Bensalem Township, Bishop Carroll High School, Bristol Township, Eastern Lancaster County, Gateway, Haverford Township, La Salle Academy, and Lower Merion.

The recall, the biggest in United States history, was spurred by the release of a video last month which showed workers at Hallmark using forklifts to terrorize sick cattle.

Helen Gym, director of Parents United for Public Education, said she wants to know why the schools didn't move faster to learn the source of the meat.

"There's a childhood joke about 'mystery meat'," Gym said this morning. "But we knew that Hallmark was a school food provider. So why wasn't there a serious inquiry immediately?"

Gym noted that the upsetting video was released in January by the Humane Society. She said her group was shocked to learn that beef from the California meatpacker had been distributed to schools on the East coast.

"This is not just a Philadelphia problem. This affects Lower Merion as well," Gym said. "The National School Lunch program has clearly not been using products that are of high quality."

School District spokesman Fernando Gallard said the district moved as swiftly as possible to remove any and all beef products.

"We are just at the bottom of the information flow," Gallard said. "It was up to the USDA to do an investigation and inform states of their findings."

Beef has long been a staple in the Philadelphia schools.

During the first week in February, cafeterias served processed beef four times.

A menu posted on the Meredith Elementary School website showed hamburgers were served Feb. 1; pasta with meatsauce or beef tacos on Feb. 4; hamburgers on Feb. 6; and meatloaf on Feb. 7.

"We have not heard of any child becoming ill as a result of eating the beef," said Gallard.

In Philadelphia, all schools have been asked to destroy any suspect meat until the suppliers can certify that their beef is not part of the recalled stock.

Turkey, fish, chicken and vegetables are replacing beef on cafeteria menus until the district is assured the meat supply is not contaminated.

"We want to be very cautious," said Gallard. "So we've pulled all the beef and all beef products from our schools until we can be 100 percent sure its safe."

Gallard said he wasn't sure how much of an economic hit the district would take as a result of the recall.

"It's going to cost a lot," he said. "But over 190 districts are going through the same thing. The USDA is looking to figure out to make sure the districts don't lose any money."

A complete list of schools in Pennsylvania asked to participate in the recall is available at http://www.agriculture.state.pa.us/agriculture/cwp/view.asp?Q=147738&A=390.