School district pulls beef from menu

Where’s the beef? Not in Laguna Beach public schools — at least for the time being.

The USDA has placed an administrative hold on ground beef produced by Westland Meat Company following allegations of animal abuse at one of its plants.

At issue is coarse and fine ground beef produced by the company, one of the state’s largest suppliers of beef to its public school districts.

The company is under federal investigation for allegations that employees at its Chino plant slaughtered sick and injured cows, following the release of an undercover video by the U.S. Humane Society showing the animals allegedly being abused.

The video showed employees poking “downed” animals in the eye, using high-pressure hoses to spray them in their faces and forcibly moving them with forklifts.

In addition to obvious welfare concerns, the video propelled alarm that the sickly animals may illegally have been turned into food products.

Since hearing from the Department of Agriculture on Friday, the Laguna Beach Unified School District has opted not to serve any beef products until it receives further word from the department, district spokesperson Darrin Reed said in a statement released on Feb. 1.

The district has been given the names of several companies that may have sold them processed end products that could contain beef from the plant in question.

“After thorough investigation by district officials, it has been determined that LBUSD does not have any of the meat packaged with specified code numbers,” Reed said.

“However, as a precaution, we are adhering to the recommendation of the California Department of Education and will not serve any beef products until further instructed by the USDA. All meals served in LBUSD schools will maintain nutritional quality with a substitute protein such as chicken or turkey.”

The USDA placed an administrative hold on all Westland Meat Company products produced between Jan. 1 and 30.

The hold is still in effect, but an update is expected early next week, the California Department of Education said.

The department is urging districts to avoid using all beef products until further notice, but is not forcing districts to abstain from serving beef that did not come from Westland.