Spiraling Effect

Last week I read an article about tainted meat from a California meatpacking plant. I remember saying that it was fortunate that New Jersey’s students were not affected. Little did I know how wrong I would be. On Saturday, February 23, 2008 in the Star Ledger, I learned differently; 100 New Jersey schools that participated in the federal lunch program were affected. At least 126,000 pounds of ground beef from the Hallmark/Westland Meat Co. of Chino, California was shipped between February 2006 and this month to three processing plants in New Jersey. The meat was sold in the form of taco filling, cooked beef patties, frozen steaks, meatballs and beef barbecue nuggets, all of which are served in our local schools.

The state Department of Agriculture is working to notify the schools affected. Schools affected are being sent E-mails with instructions on how to identify any tainted product, how to dispose of it and how to record the disposal. The state put a hold on 143 million pounds of Hallmark/Westland beef on January 30. More than 50 million pounds went to schools nationwide. New Jersey State Sen. O’Toole said that this should suggest a review of the state’s regulation governing food recall.

I feel more frequent investigations by California and New Jersey officials would have shown that downer cows (cows which can not stand up) were being processed at this meatpacking plant. This is illegal. I feel the Department of Agriculture was negligent. The time frame for notifying authorities of the tainted beef (February 2006 to February 2008) is far too long. The students in our schools ate the affected meat. How much have the students already consumed? How many of the students complained of feeling ill and it was not diagnosed correctly? What is the state now going to do about informing the parents and guardians of this occurrence? How will the state prevent this for happening again?????