School Lunch Risk Uncovered by USA Today
As a story this week in USA Today reminds us, the government has a “zero-tolerance” policy for the pathogens E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella in ground beef bound for schools via the national school lunch program. The program actually has a very good track record of keeping these pathogens away from our kids in school.
Why then — as the newspaper properly questions — did the program accept certain ground beef orders made by a supplier during a period this summer when the meat could have been contaminated with Salmonella?
It makes no sense and the government reply is feeble.
James Marsden, a professor of food safety and security at Kansas State University, is the voice of reason in this story. He said the decision put children at risk and there’s no question in my mind that it did.
The case revolves around the summer recall and ground beef Salmonella outbreak associated with the Fresno, California, plant of Beef Packers Inc., a subsidiary of food giant Cargill. The outbreak sickened at least 39 people in 11 states. Our firm, Pritzker Olsen Attorneys, is representing one of the victims.
Here’s the gist of the USA Today story by reporters Blake Morrison, Peter Eisler and Anthony DeBarros:
Even as public health officials told residents to throw out recalled products from the Fresno plant, the federal government paid Beef Packers hundreds of thousands of dollars for almost 450,000 pounds of ground beef made from June 5 to June 23, the dates covered by the recall. Four orders were produced for the school lunch program during that period.
One tested positive for Salmonella Newport, the strain that prompted the recall and can cause diarrhea, abdominal cramps, fever and vomiting. That order — produced June 9 – was rejected by the government.
Because testing of samples from the three other orders of beef were Salmonella-free, the meat made for schools was not included in the recall, even though it was produced during the span of the recall.
Lawmakers and food safety experts told the paper that the three orders should have been rejected nonetheless. That’s because the tests that led the government to release the beef are inconsistent and often wrong, Marsden told the newspaper.
Government officials with the Agricultural Marketing Service, the arm of the USDA that runs the school lunch program, stood behind their decision. But the program’s administrator said the USDA “plans to initiate an independent review” of
its “testing procedures and process control requirements” next year.
Tags: food poisoning, salmonella poisoning, school lunch salmonella
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