The New Jersey Department of Agriculture released a list of approximately 160 school districts in New Jersey that have received shipments of potentially tainted beef from the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing company and Kearny was on this list.
Obviously this is a concern to all of us and I just want to clarify some issues.
One of the first things we did was contact the Kearny Health Department for guidance and advice. Then, working in cooperation with Pomptonian, the district’s food service manager, all of our government-supplied food inventories have been carefully checked.
In early September, the district did receive twenty cases of taco mix. This taco mix, received in September 2007 was identified in February 2008 as being potentially tainted. All of the taco mix has been used prior to notification and fortunately to the best of our knowledge, no student became ill from this food.
The United States Department of Agriculture has deemed this a “Class II” beef recall meaning that the products in question had only a remote possibility of causing adverse health effects. Nationwide more than 143,000,000 pounds of meat are being recalled. Nationally there has been no illness reported related to this recall.
Without a doubt our State and Federal Government have had a good record protecting children from tainted food products. Unfortunately in this case the Kearny Public Schools was notified about the potential problem more than six months after the product was delivered. We can rest assured that these agencies are doing everyting in their power to guarantee that this situation does not repeat itself.
Additionally, I have asked our cafeteria management company to eliminate beef products from our menu for the next few days. This decision is based on parent and student comfort rather than the need to ban beef products at this time because there are no identified products remaining in our inventory.
Clearly there is no need for concern in Kearny at this time; however, please feel free to give me a call if you have any questions or concerns. Additionally, John Sarnas, Kearny’s Health Officer welcomes inquiries at 201-997-0600 or email jsarnas@kearnynj.org.
Robert P. Mooney
Superintendent of Schools
