A California slaughterhouse whose "unacceptable" treatment of cattle has
prompted a federal investigation supplied millions of pounds of meat to
school-lunch and other food programs in recent years, federal records show.
It's not clear whether any of that meat ended up in Orange County school
lunchrooms.
Federal regulators shut down the Central Valley Meat Co. in Hanford on
Monday after receiving an undercover video that appeared to show workers
tormenting cows and bungling their slaughter. The video showed cows thrashing
and bleeding after being shot with a pneumatic stun gun, and workers using
electric prods to hit cows that appeared unable to walk.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture halted operations at the plant and
sent in a team of investigators, in part to ensure the safety of its meat. The
agency said in a statement that the video captured inhumane practices but did
not show any sick -- or "downer" -- cows entering the food supply.
"We have reviewed the video and determined that, while some of the
footage provided shows unacceptable treatment of cattle, it does not show
anything that would compromise food safety," Al Almanza, the administrator of
the Food Safety and Inspection Service, said in a statement. "Therefore, we
have not substantiated a food safety violation at this time."
The plant has received more than $340 million in contracts from the
federal Agricultural Marketing Service since 2000, federal procurement records
show. The agency runs the national school-lunch program and other federal
food-assistance programs.
Central Valley sold some 21 million pounds of beef to federal food
programs in fiscal year 2011. As late as this month, the plant was selling its
frozen ground beef to federal "child nutrition" and other food programs -- 1.2
million pounds, worth more than $2.5 million, purchase reports show.
In Orange County, a dozen school districts polled by the county
Department of Education said they were not aware of any Central Valley meat in
their kitchens. But districts rarely contract directly with a slaughterhouse
such as Central Valley; much of their meat comes in bulk shipments from the
school-lunch program, or from processors.
(The districts that responded to the Education Department's inquiry were:
Laguna Beach, Ocean View, Irvine, Los Alamitos, Lowell Joint, OCDE schools,
Fullerton Joint Union, Savanna, Capistrano Unified, Newport Mesa, Fountain
Valley and Centralia.)
The USDA has not ordered a recall of Central Valley meat. Dr. Marc
Lerner, the medical director of the Orange County Department of Education,
called that an "important statement relative to what the implications might be
for student safety."
Nonetheless, Irvine-based In-N-Out Burger said it "immediately severed"
its relationship with Central Valley, which had supplied about 20 percent of
its meat. "In-N-Out Burger would never condone the inhumane treatment of
animals and all of our suppliers must agree to abide by our strict standards
for the humane treatment of cattle," it said in a statement.
Irvine-based Taco Bell also said in a statement that it finds "the
inhumane treatment of animals completely unacceptable, and we won't do
business with suppliers that don't meet our high standards." Spokesman Rob
Poetsch did not respond when asked to clarify whether the chain had used
Central Valley meat before.
A spokeswoman for Carl Karcher Enterprises, the former Anaheim company
that includes Carl's Jr. and other chain restaurants, said she was not aware
of "any product in the CKE system that came from that plant." A spokeswoman
for Lake Forest-based Del Taco did not respond to a request for comment.
The USDA has also suspended its beef purchases from Central Valley Meat
as it investigates the slaughterhouse practices shown in the video, shot by an
undercover worker for the animal-welfare group Compassion Over Killing. The
plant will have to submit an animal welfare plan and pass an onsite audit
before it can be reinstated as a federal supplier, according to the USDA.
In a statement issued by its public-relations firm, Central Valley said
that it took the agency's concerns seriously.
"After viewing the covert video, Central Valley Meat is now working with
the USDA to address any concerns the government and inspectors may have," it
said in the statement. "We are confident in our ability to implement any
directives (the Food Safety and Inspection Service) may have and that there
are no food safety issues whatsoever involving our product."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
