Source:  Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 12/2/09

An article published Wednesday by USA Today calls into question the safety of ground beef produced for the National School Lunch Program.

The story particularly asks why a 825,769-pound recall of ground beef Aug. 6 on salmonella concerns by Fresno, Calif.-based Beef Packers, a subsidiary of Cargill, did not include product the company sold to the Agricultural Marketing Service to supply school lunches.

Citing documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, USA Today noted that of four orders of ground beef produced by Beef Packers for the school lunch program during the recall date range of June 5 to June 23, one tested positive for salmonella Newport, the strain that spurred the recall. That order, the story says, was rejected per AMS guidelines; the other three tested negative for salmonella and were shipped to schools before the recall was announced.

No outbreaks at schools were associated with the product in question, Cargill spokesman Mark Klein noted in the article.

However, the story quotes food safety experts, including Kansas State University food safety professor and meat industry consultant James Marsden, as saying AMS's tests are unreliable in offering true verification of the safety of ground beef. The government, he said, should have erred on the safe side and rejected all four orders.

The Beef Packers case, Marsden is quoted as saying, "highlights a potential flaw in the system that should be addressed."

To read the entire USA Today article, click here. 

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