Fast Food Safer than School Lunch?

(CBS)  Schoolchildren around the U.S. are eating meat that falls short of the safety standards of many fast food restaurants, the USA Today reported Wednesday.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture maintains the meat it buys for the National School Lunch Program "meets or exceeds standards in commercial products."

But the paper's investigation revealed fast food chains including McDonald's, Burger King, Jack in the Box and KFC have much more stringent quality requirements for the food they serve, with some of them testing meat for dangerous pathogens up to 10 times more a day than the USDA.

USDA-purchased meat ends up on the plates of 31 million students a day, worrying some that children's still-developing immune systems are more susceptible to potentially deadly bacteria like salmonella and E. coli.

The USDA's standards for meat sent to schools exceed minimum standards for meat sold at supermarkets, but fast food restaurants have raised the bar when it comes to quality control, the report notes.

While the government has a zero tolerance policy for meat that tests positive for salmonella or E. coli O157:H7, fast food chains' more stringent standards also test for "indicator" pathogens that could indicate more dangerous bacteria is present in the meat.

Government officials are looking at beefing up safeguards for school food. Congress will reexamine the Child Nutrition Act, which governs the lunch program, next year. And in light of the USA Today investigation, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has pledged to launch an independent review of testing standards of ground beef sent to schools.

[rf35]

Okay, school lunch is crappy. Tastes terrible and probably not that nutritious. However, I am not concerned with a little extra bacteria in the stuff. The only way to develop a child's immune system is to introduce pathogens to said child. The obsession today with antibacterial this and that and sanitizing everything is a train to illness. We are accomplishing 2 things: speeding evolution of resistant bacteria that nothing will kill and causing our immune systems to atrophy. It's like a muscle...it needs to be exercised to work properly. Use it or lose it.

[bowhunter01]

The bacteria in food that gets kids sick is not the same bacteria that we need to build our immunity. We are exposed to that bacteria daily. But i believe that school lunches are worse for kids then actual fast food. So next time you try sounding smart do some actual research first.

[Sloughfoot]

Schools , with the lion's share of the local tax dollar should be able to provide a nourishing mid day meal for youngsters.
Reponsibility for that being so should lie at the feet of the school board.

Perhaps it will take legislation at the State level, providing for both civil and criminal retribution before these wanta be politicians take their jobs seriously and quit making the "School Board" a platform from which to advance their private adgendas.

[Sloughfoot]

Ice cream - milk, eggs, vanilla, aglgae, some saw dust, oh yes some sugar - must be the sugar you object to.

[helensuedell]

If only we would stop and realize the sheer impossiblity of safe
meat for schools or anyone else as a matter a fact. I lno longer have
grandkids in schools but I would return to home-packed lunches until
meat suppliers can become local. There have been two recent recalls from
Cargill Company but as little mention is made of this bad meat monsoon.
Just perhaps if we scream to the heavens "Folks when you going to stop supporters these mechanical monsters who package our meats." Think about
why is a hamburger only $1.00...Volume...equaling profits.
Eventually we start buying organic beef and chickens from local farms
but it will take time since truth is so hard to squeese through so
much propaganda.

[barbaram99]

I am 55. We had reess. Every thing the poster said..We had lunch at school that was a lot better than the fast food of today. I think it was better yesrd ago..Years ago we were taudght to leave it cleaner than ye found it. We washed our paws.Covered our munths. As a pupil I worked in the lunch room to earn my lunch. I was a foster child..The school lunch room was cleaner that at home. We never worried about that stuff they do today. Sure they kelp the scool chean..It was our part to not be messy.

[bowhunter01]

Learn how to talk before you post on something.

[emh1701]

I wonder if this food safety assessment includes calories and fat grams.

[sdemaggie]

You know, to the best of my recollection, I for one, cannot ever recall an ecoli or other food borne disease linked to a school hot lunch program. Hum, I wonder what the real agenda is behind this so called study/report. I'd recommend investigating the group that financed/wrote the report. Wow, I can't believe how much money the fast food chains are wasting on unneccassary testing.

[bubbadubba]

And more propaganda from the wealthy using their media to convince America to let the fast food companies feed our kids in school.
WOW! $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$! PROFITS!
If only we could use propaganda to fuel our cars.

[Scimajor]

I work at a school and the food that we fee our kids is revolting. Additionally, it should come as no surprise that a multibillion dollar corporation (e.g. Burger King) would be better able to meet safety standards than a school with little or no budget and a miniscule profit margin.

[aChangeOfIdeas]

"The USDA's standards for meat sent to schools exceed minimum standards for meat sold at supermarkets" so in essence the headline could have read "School lunches safer than your local grocery store".

One difference here is that your fast food establishments aren't giving out 20 million free/reduced lunches a day. They can certainly afford the extra testing (to avoid lawsuits, I'm sure).

[Fatesrider]

One wonders, with all of the things that could go wrong no one ever thought much about back in the day, how we ever survived childhood.

We had playgrounds with packed dirt the consistency of concrete under the jungle gym, swing set and merry-go-round (the latter no longer a staple of playgrounds, it seems - they must have been too dangerous). The jungle gym wasn't even padded. They were made out of unyielding steel bars. The food we ate wasn't submitted to fifty thousand tests before we consumed it. We just ate it. We didn't disinfect everything in sight. We didn't even worry about peanuts roaming free in society.

Then again, back in the day, we used to take care of ourselves. We took responsibility for our own safety. We kept an eye on our kids while they played, making sure they didn't harass the neighbors. We got sick, got better and didn't sue anyone because everyone got sick once in a while. We didn't cry to the government every time someone got a hangnail that SOMETHING OUGHT TO BE DONE!

And now this bit of drivel about the meat in our schools. The headline would have you believe that the meat served in schools is unsafe. Not true. Fast food serves a hell of a lot more people per day than our schools, and isn't government-run. They're a business which must ensure the safety of it's products to stay in business. By practical necessity, they're very careful about what they serve. It's a slam-dunk, logic and business-wise. Not so much for schools. Despite this, school meat is still pretty safe.

In reading the story, it turns out that the meat bought in grocery stores - you know, that you use in your home-cooked meal everyone keeps saying is so good for you - is more likely to kill your kid than what they get at school in that Wednesday mystery-meat special. Yes, folks, your kitchen is more dangerous to you AND your kids than the glop that passes for food in the US school system. But then, the headline, "School Meat Safer Than Home Cooking!" isn't something that drives traffic to a website, now, is it?

[TheStolenGiraffe]

Back in the Day??? Those days r over my friend...its about to be 2010, we live in a different time now with a host of new diseases and bacteria along with a debt burdened society because wages have remained stagnant for a few decades now and our gov't has been running a deficit for half that amount. the "good ole days" are over, for you and everyone else...get used to it.