Schools destroy recalled meats

Sonoma County schools are destroying more than 300 cases of recalled meat from the southern California meat packing company accused of sending at-risk cattle into the food supply.

“It’s been a nightmare,” said Cathy Luellen-Aflague, director of food services for Santa Rosa Schools. “We have people in the freezer looking at everything we might have.”

Santa Rosa Schools, the county’s largest district, must destroy more than 10,700 pounds of raw beef by Tuesday. And updated lists of recalled meats are still coming in — Luellen-Aflague said she had received new recall information on Wednesday and Thursday.

Beyond next week’s deadline for destroying the recalled meat, Luellen-Aflague said the district would extend a self-imposed ban on beef at least through March because of the slow trickle of information coming from some suppliers.

“It seems to me that it would be better for us to hold it a little longer,” she said.

Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company was suspended Jan. 30 as a supplier to the federal food and nutrition programs, which provides products for schools nationwide amid allegations that it abused animals and distributed meat from weak or sick cattle.

Students across the country had been eating beef from Hallmark/Westland for months before videos surfaced of employees allegedly using electrical prods and forklifts to push so-called “downer” cows to slaughter. Cows that cannot stand are banned from being used as human food because they are a higher risk for having mad cow and other diseases.

The hold order was changed to a recall this week, meaning recipients of the meat must destroy everything that hasn’t been consumed.

There are strict regulations on how the meat can be destroyed. In the case of the Santa Rosa district, it can either be sent to a landfill, burned or rendered.

Santa Rosa’s meat will likely be trucked to a rendering facility in San Jose.

Ten districts in Sonoma County received the meat, according to state Department of Education. The largest shipment went to Santa Rosa School District, which received 380 cases over the two years. Wright Elementary district received 31 cases, Healdsburg got 25 cases and Cloverdale got 20 cases.