Jeffco Schools' beef goes bye-bye

The Rocky

Published February 28, 2008 at 6:32 a.m.
Updated February 28, 2008 at 10:06 a.m.

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Photo by George Kochaniec Jr. © The Rocky

John Scott and Doug Cone, storage warehouse workers for Jefferson County Schools, dispose of recalled meat this morning.

Lunch for tens of thousands of Jefferson County schoolchildren won't include 400 cases of frozen beef, which is being disposed of starting this morning.

Colorado's largest school district bought some of the 143 million pounds of frozen beef being recalled from Chino, Calif.-based Westland/Hallmark Meat Co.

Jeffco warehouse staff will throw the meat in dumpsters at a Jeffco Schools storage warehouse on Quail Street in Lakewood, said district spokeswoman Melissa Reeves. From there, Allied Waste Disposal Co. will haul it to a landfill.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture issued the recall on Feb. 17. Westland/Hallmark supplies meat to the federal school lunch program.

The largest beef recall in the nation's history is considered a less serious health risk than some of the other large recalls in recent years.

It stems from charges that animals were mistreated by workers at the Westland/Hallmark plant and the worry that company inspectors didn't examine carefully enough animals that might be deemed to be ill before they were slaughtered and put into the human food chain.

• February 28, 2008

  11:31 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  hdfresh writes:

  A dumpster diving homeless mans dream!

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