Then of course there was,
"I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you."
The federal government has once again lived up to that famous lie by failing to inform schools of recalls and suspected tainted food, putting millions of schoolchildren at risk of food poisoning over the last two years.
The recalled foods included salmonella-tainted peanut products linked to the deaths of at least nine people, said the report, which was completed last month by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.
The GAO said it did not have any data on how many children may have been sickened by he food they ate at school, but it said it had confirmed that “some affected commodities were served to schoolchildren after holds and recalls were announced.” The findings raise “concerns about the safety of foods served in schools and the welfare of schoolchildren,” the report said.
While food items that are being pulled from grocery store shelves across the country they are still being served to millions of schoolchildren.
Nearly 4,000 products produced by Peanut Corp. of America, which were recalled this year for possible salmonella contamination. Schools in Arkansas, California, Idaho and Minnesota received some of the recalled products directly through the school meal program; in addition, peanut butter was shipped to a further processor, which distributed the products to other states.
More than 143 million pounds of meat from ill cattle that had been sold over two years by Westland/Hallmark Meat Co., which were pulled early last year in the biggest food recall in U.S. history. About 50 million pounds of suspect ground beef was provided to more than 7,000 school districts in 46 states and the District of Columbia before and after the recall.
Canned vegetables produced by New Era Canning Co., which were recalled from December 2007 to February 2008 because of possible botulism contamination. Schools in in 37 states received the products.
Food and Nutrition Service officials “told us it was not their responsibility to check on the effectiveness” of the recalls in the review, saying “they relied on their regulatory partners ... to conduct these quality checks,” the GAO said.
“As a result, they were unable to ensure that the recalls were being carried out effectively by schools,” it said.
Afterward, some schools reported that they could not find landfills that would accept large quantities of recalled products.
