newsminer.com

Public school officials here removed 3,200 pounds of country fried beef patties from the school lunch menu this week after the largest beef recall in United States history.

In a Fairbanks North Star Borough District freezer sits about 80 cases of country fried beef patties made with the recalled meat, said Amy Rouse, director of nutrition services.

The cases were moved to the back of the freezer and will be thrown away or destroyed as instructed by the federal government, Rouse said.

The U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service is investigating the meat supplier Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co., following allegations of cattle mistreatment in California. The company provided meat for the National School Lunch Program.

The Fairbanks school district is one of 53 school districts or residential child care institutions in Alaska that received an estimated 80,000 pounds of meat now subject to the recall, according to Tony Warren, education program assistant for the Alaska Department of Education’s child nutrition program.

In all, 143 million pounds of beef was recalled nationwide, and much of the meat is believed to have already been eaten, including 90 cases of ground beef and 267 cases of meatballs that were fed to public-school pupils in Anchorage, according to Brent Rock, the school lunch director there.

No public-school students in Fairbanks were served the recalled beef, Rouse said, and the secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture has said that the chances of anyone becoming ill are remote.

“The United States enjoys one of the safest food supplies in the world,” Secretary Ed Schafer said in a statement posted on the USDA Web site.

Rouse said she removed country fried beef patties from the school lunch menu in late January after Schafer announced that Hallmark/Westland had been put on hold as a supplier to federal nutrition programs, including the National School Lunch Program.

The recall has forced Rouse to change only two days of the school lunch menu, she said.

“Had it been one of our other manufacturers, it would have impacted us heavily,” she said.

The school district will continue to serve country fried beef fingers, which are made with beef from a different supplier, Rouse said.

Two cases of beef patties were served to teenagers at the Fairbanks Youth Facility that came from the same federal program that provides meat to the schools.

Karen Stone, manager of food service for the juvenile detention center, said she did not know if the meat originated with Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co.

The company came under fire after an investigator with the Humane Society of the Unites States recorded footage of employees abusing cattle and of downed cattle going to slaughter.

Prohibiting the slaughter of downed cattle is one of several safeguards against bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease, according to the USDA.

Spokespersons for both Safeway Inc. and Fred Meyer said the beef recall did not affect their stores because the companies use other suppliers.

The fast food chain McDonald’s also uses other suppliers, according to The Associated Press. Carl’s Jr. uses other suppliers as well, according to a statement released by the California company that owns the franchise.

A spokesman for Wendy’s could not be reached.

Workers at the Fairbanks Community Food Bank checked their freezers to see if they had any of the recalled meat, said Samantha Kirstein, the executive director.

“The reality is that we don’t have any beef,” Kirstein said.