Recalled school beef destroyed at city landfill

Staff report

About 200 cases of recalled beef from Carson City Schools were destroyed at the city landfill Friday morning.

The beef came from Chino, Calif.-based Westland/Hallmark Meat Company which the U.S. Department of Agriculture had shut down Sunday as part of the nation's largest beef recall.

The Humane Society of the United States had released a video showing workers forcing sick or injured cattle into the slaughterhouse.

About one-third of the 143 million pounds of beef recalled went to schools. About 20 million of the 50 million pounds had already been eaten.

The beef from the Carson City Schools had to be destroyed so the district could get a refund for the food from the USDA. A machine that looks like a bulldozer "shredded" the meat once it got to the landfill and "completely rendered (it) inedible," said Neil Fox, a city environmental health specialist.

Fox said the city has done this before when it's seized illegal meat, but the destruction was smaller.

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms also does this when it confiscates illegal beer or liquor, he said.

No student ate any of the recalled meat, said Carson City School District Superintendent Mary Pierczynski, but the recall will force schools to change their menus next month.

The schools get their meat from a service center in Reno, and that will take a hit from the recall.

Federal rules required that the meat destruction be verified, which was why Fox was there. He said the food also could have been incinerated, but the equipment wasn't available.

About one-fifth of the Chino plant's meat had gone to federal school lunch programs.