Fast-food standards for meat top those for school lunches

major national newspaper ^ | 12/8/09 | Peter Eisler, Blake Morrison and Anthony DeBarros

[Daisyjane69]

In the past three years, the government has provided the nation's schools with millions of pounds of beef and chicken that wouldn't meet the quality or safety standards of many fast-food restaurants, from Jack in the Box and other burger places to chicken chains such as KFC, a USA TODAY investigation found.

[Daisyjane69]

CLick on the USA today link contained in the article, to get the other installments on this series.

(I guess we can’t post directly from USA today, hence the Major American Newspaper thingy. Thought I could slink that through! NOT.)

heh

[wintertime]

"That isn't always the case. McDonald's, Burger King and Costco, for instance, are far more rigorous in checking for bacteria and dangerous pathogens. They test the ground beef they buy five to 10 times more often than the USDA tests beef made for schools during a typical production day. "And the limits Jack in the Box and other big retailers set for certain bacteria in their burgers are up to 10 times more stringent than what the USDA sets for school beef." It gets better: "For chicken, the USDA has supplied schools with thousands of tons of meat from old birds that might otherwise go to compost or pet food. Called 'spent hens' because they're past their egg-laying prime, the chickens don't pass muster with Colonel Sanders -- KFC won't buy them -- and they don't pass the soup test, either. The Campbell Soup Company says it stopped using them a decade ago based on 'quality considerations.'"/p>

This is what our health care will soon look ( and feel) like.

[wintertime]

Another Reason to Homeschool.

I have **never** met a fat homeschooler who has been homeschooled from the beginning. I can't even remember a chubby one.

[pnh102]

[libertarian27]

[joe fonebone]

skrool lunches have always pissed me off....for the price of the lunch ( they always lose money on them ) you could have lunch catered, and probably save a few bucks. the best way for skrools to save cash is to cancel lunches entirely, and have the students brown bag it.....

[CitizenUSA]

There’s a big lesson to be learned here.

Let’s see...

Free market works rigorously to maintain high standards of quality. Failure is severely punished where it hurts most—the pocketbook.

Government operations don’t care and have no incentive to excel. Failure is rewarded with an increased budget (to “improve” operations) the following year.

[Daisyjane69]

ding, ding, ding....

We have a winner here!

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

Every few months, the Giant Eagle market near my home will have a big sale on chicken. Big chicken breasts, fortified with 15% chicken broth. Tough, tasteless “spent hens.” No thanks.

[SpaceBar]

High quality meat sold to paying customers subject to the rewards and penalties of free market enterprise, versus government subsidized substandard meat forced on a captive audience. The very essence of capitalism vs socialism.

[exDemMom]

"For chicken, the USDA has supplied schools with thousands of tons of meat from old birds that might otherwise go to compost or pet food. Called 'spent hens' because they're past their egg-laying prime, the chickens don't pass muster with Colonel Sanders -- KFC won't buy them -- and they don't pass the soup test, either. The Campbell Soup Company says it stopped using them a decade ago based on 'quality considerations.'"

Oh, wow. Selling those "spent hens" for soup used to be a major way my stepfather made money back when I was a kid in the 60s and 70s. They went for soup because egg laying chickens are very skinny compared to meat chickens, and the toughness of the meat from older birds made it more suitable for soup/stew than other cooking methods. IIRC, those hens were about 2 years old. I wonder what effect that had on small-scale chicken farmers when Campbell stopped buying their used birds.

[hal ogen]

It remi9nds me of the “mystery meat” the cafeteria used to serve at school. It was breaded something that (when the breading was scraped off) was gray-ish and had a beak, a piece of tendon or something in there.

[vetvetdoug]

The answer to why this is happening is very easy. Just follow the government procurement individuals involved and check out their bank accounts. Check out the ones that allowed this to go on unchecked. This has happened before, the military was getting substandard food back in 1973-74 and when we USAF inspectors caught the ones passing the substandard food, many DPSC individuals were involved, many inspectors were involved, and Jimmy Carter took the inspection duties away from the USAF and gave them to the USDA where they could politically affect the inspection results. There were Congressional Senate investigations in 1975 and it was big news then. Democrats and liberals have short memories.

[Condor51]

In the past three years, the government has provided the nation's schools with millions of pounds of beef and chicken that wouldn't meet the quality or safety standards of many fast-food restaurants..

Sheesh, all some people can do is whine, whine, whine.

HEY. Nimrods. This food is for minorities and poor children so who cares.
They're lucky they aren't being served cold gruel and moldy bread. ₍₁₎

(1) Grumblings of a faceless Dem bureaucrat in the 4th subbasement at the Dept of Ed.

[metmom]

ANOTHER REASON TO HOMESCHOOL

This ping list is for the “other” articles of interest to homeschoolers about education and public school. This can occasionally be a fairly high volume list. Articles pinged to the Another Reason to Homeschool List will be given the keyword of ARTH. (If I remember. If I forget, please feel free to add it yourself)

The main Homeschool Ping List handles the homeschool-specific articles. I hold both the Homeschool Ping List and the Another Reason to Homeschool Ping list. Please freepmail me to let me know if you would like to be added to or removed from either list, or both.

[kickonly88]

As is the case with most things, follow the money.

[windcliff]

Yikes I’ve been poisoned.

[onedoug]

‘Seems like an excuse those les.... Ah, never mind.

[TexasRepublic]

Are you surprised? Fresh roadkill would cost more.