Education and Labor Hearing on School Food Nutrition

This afternoon the Education and Labor Committee held a hearing to examine how to improve nutrition and food safety in the nation's schools. Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture ordered the largest recall of meat in the nation's history after investigations revealed that meat from non-ambulatory (or "downer") cows at a California slaughterhouse had been allowed to enter the food supply. More than a third of the tainted meat had gone to federal nutrition programs, including to schools.

Chairman George Miller gave opening remarks:

Chairman Miller: "As is now well known, earlier this year the Humane Society of the United States announced that it had conducted an investigation into the Westland/Hallmark Meat Company in Chino, California. The investigation revealed that workers were using electric shocks, forklifts, and water sprays to force nonambulatory cows to stand so that they would pass inspection with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Under the law, nonambulatory cows, often called 'downer cows,' are not permitted to enter the food supply because of the risk they pose of salmonella and e. coli contamination and of carrying possibly mad cow disease. At the time that the Humane Society conducted this important investigation at the Westland/Hallmark slaughterhouse, federal food safety inspectors were performing inspections at the slaughterhouse twice a day. These abuses were happening right under the inspectors' noses, but it took a private charity organization to uncover them."

Dora Rivas, Executive Director of Food and Child Nutrition Services in the Dallas Independent School District:

Dora Rivas: "It is unfortunate the that press release information went out to public release before official information and instructions arrived to food service directors via USDA/State communications, allowing little time to prepare for a media and public response. Providing information to school districts first and then providing [a] press release on action taken would have been a better situation for us."