Schools pull suspect beef from lunch menus

Most Douglas County students won't see beef on their school lunch menus for a while.

Schools received an e-mail message early Thursday morning from Michael Woodbridge of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service, which provides food for the National School Lunch Program.

"We received news yesterday of serious allegations concerning the treatment of cattle at Westland Meat Co., a slaughter facility," Woodbridge wrote.

Westland actually processes the carcasses of meat supplied to it by Hallmark Meat Packing Co., where the mistreatment allegedly occurred.

That "treatment" allegedly included workers mistreating sick cows in order to force them into a slaughterhouse. The Humane Society of the United States released video of the treatment after a six-week undercover investigation. Cows that are too sick to walk aren't supposed to enter the food supply. Federal regulations prohibit that because sick cows may pose a higher risk of E. coli, salmonella contamination or mad cow disease.

Westland Meat Co. has been suspended as a supplier to the USDA until an investigation is complete, and lot numbers for some of the beef were sent out.

"We will supply more information and instructions as discussions occur at the national level and decisions are made," Woodbridge concluded.

"The good news is no kids have gotten sick," said Gene Evans, the Oregon Department of Education's communications director.

The Department of Education distributes food from the USDA for the lunch program. Both raw and cooked meat have come from Westland and been distributed through the program.

Evans said his department will be asking questions.

"I really do think they owe us some answers about how this happened," he said. "...We expect that the inspectors are doing their job. This is a real violation of that."

So far there's no evidence that the meat was tainted, Evans said, but the department is encouraging schools to put aside all their ground beef from the USDA until more information is available.

The Days Creek School District isn't taking any chances, and the head cook has decided that as long as she is working for the school district, beef won't be served at all, Superintendent Laurie Newton said. She'll switch to ground turkey. The school always offers a vegetarian entree, as well.

The school won't use any of the beef it has on hand, either, until it's absolutely sure the meat didn't come from Westland, Newton said.

Sodexho provides food service for the Roseburg School District and Umpqua Community Action Network Head Start. Food Service Supervisor Peggy Grant doesn't believe any of the company's beef came from Westland, but she said any questionable meat will be pulled.

The most difficult meat to trace will be raw frozen ground beef, according to state officials. Sodexho doesn't use raw meat. All the meat it buys has already been processed into hamburger patties or cooked beef crumbles for meals like spaghetti and tacos.

Yoncalla and Sutherlin don't believe their meat was from Westland, either.

"Just for safety reasons at this time, we're not using any of that until we get more direction from the state," said Claire Cotton, Sutherlin's deputy clerk.

Winston-Dillard, North Douglas and Oakland all had beef from Westland, and they've all pulled it.

Julia Swearingen of Winston-Dillard said she's trying to find out who will pay to replace the beef.

Evans said the USDA will replace the beef, though no details have been released about when.



The Associated Press contributed to this story.



* You can reach reporter Teresa Williams at 957-4230 or via e-mail at twilliams@newsreview.info.