100 state school districts told not to serve CA slaughterhouse beef

By DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP | Associated Press Writer • Published February 01, 2008

More than 100 Washington state school districts that bought beef that originated at a California slaughterhouse being investigated by the U.S. Agriculture Department have been told to not serve any of that meat, state officials said Friday.

All the ground beef served by school districts in this state comes from three different meat processing companies, and at least one of those processors gets beef from Westland Meat Co, which processes carcasses from the Hallmark Meat Packing Co., said Nathan Olson, spokesman for the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

The federal government has asked state education officials to contact school districts and tell them to set aside beef connected to Hallmark and Westland, he said.

They're still gathering information, but Orson said the list already tops 100 of Washington 296 school districts.

The USDA said Wednesday it would investigate whether sick dairy cows were mistreated at a Hallmark slaughterhouse in California in violation of state and federal laws designed to ensure food safety and prevent animal cruelty.

Video footage, released Wednesday by The Humane Society of the United States after a six-week undercover investigation, showed workers at the plant repeatedly kicking cows and ramming them with the blades of a forklift as the animals squealed in pain.

Westland is a major supplier to a USDA program that distributes beef to needy families, the elderly and to schools through the National School Lunch Program. Westland was named a USDA "supplier of the year" for 2004-2005 and has delivered beef to schools in 36 states.

There have been no reported cases of tainted beef among the meat put on hold, Olson said. School districts have not been told to take beef off their menus, just to not serve any meat that comes from a processor connected to Hallmark or Westland.

"We've put a hold, so they can't use the beef. What they do after that is up to them," Olson said.