More than 140 cases of tainted meat were shipped to several schools in the Baltimore region and were recently set aside after the federal government recalled the product this week.
“Anything we had in the schools was put aside, and we?re waiting from action from the state on what to do with them,” said Bob Mosier, spokesman of Anne Arundel Public Schools, which has 30 cases of the beef.
The recalled beef was used in a meat sauce for spaghetti and a “fiesta macaroni and beef” meal, said Jody Risse, food and nutrition department supervisor.
Carroll County received 110 cases of the beef back in the fall. It had been used for steak-and-cheese-type sandwiches, said school system spokeswoman Carey Gaddis.
A “small number” of affected cases are in the Baltimore County Public Schools? warehouse, but the exact number and products the beef was used for couldn?t be verified yet, said school spokesperson Charles Herndon.
All school systems stopped serving the beef as soon as they became aware of the recall investigation earlier this month. There have been no reported illnesses, school officials said.
The Howard and Harford county school systems and Baltimore City School System haven?t receive any shipments, school officials said.
The recall, announced Sunday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was issued for 143 million pounds of beef from the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. in Chino, Calif., some of which was received through schools through the National School Lunch Program.
“Upon notification of possible violations of USDA regulations, we immediately began an investigation and placed products from this plant destined for the National School Lunch Program, the Emergency Food Assistance Program and the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations on hold,” said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer in a statement.
The department has placed a hold on all company products produced between Jan. 1, 2007 and Jan. 30, 2008.
Organizations such as the Humane Society of the United States have been urging 36 states to stop serving the Westland meat received through the National School Lunch Program since the end of January.
The organization is now asking for tighter federal regulations to ensure that farm animals are humanely handled and to make sure the U.S. food supply is safe.
