Chicken Served to Students May Have Had Trace Dioxin

Fried chicken fed to students in 77 Los Angeles Unified School District cafeterias this past year may have contained slight traces of a suspected carcinogen, but not at dangerous levels, according to an internal district memo.

Federal officials do not consider the low level of dioxin a health risk, ranking the problem far below last spring’s scare over hepatitis-tainted strawberries.

“This was a very low level, a very low-key thing,” said Margaret Webb, spokeswoman for the Food Safety and Inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The highest dioxin level detected in chicken samples was about 4 parts per trillion in the chicken’s fat, where it accumulates, and levels were usually closer to the permissible 1 part per trillion in the meat, according to the USDA. Only two of the 80 samples selected for testing by the Environmental Protection Agency contained the higher levels.

However, officials also acknowledge that little is known about the effects of dioxin--a dangerous industrial byproduct that has worked its way into many foods, especially fish and dairy products.

Arthur Whitmore, spokesman for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said the agency views dioxin the same way it does lead: “If the source of contamination is avoidable, then steps must be taken to avoid it.”

The dioxin in the chicken was traced to Mississippi, where clay was mined for mixing with feed to prevent caking, Whitmore said. All of that feed has been destroyed.

The USDA has recalled 532,000 pounds of chicken sent to schools nationwide by the group of vendors that used the feed.

In Los Angeles Unified, 650 cases were delivered to 77 schools in October and February last year, according to an Aug. 13 memo to school board members. Schools are being notified not to use any remaining in their freezers--although a second memo released Friday indicated that all but part of one case had been served.