Schools plan to lift beef ban from menus by May

The Newport-Mesa School District will continue to play it safe on their school menu, officials said.

The district will keep beef off the menu for another month with an estimated date to begin serving beef products set for May, school officials said.

“We want to closely examine vendor supply lines,” Director of Nutrition Services Richard Greene said. “We are getting assurances from the USDA and manufacturers that products have been replaced.”

Thousands of pounds of recalled Westland Meat Company beef ticketed for Newport-Mesa were destroyed at beef processors recently, but the school won’t lose out on any money or product, Greene said.

The product will be replaced by the USDA with beef from new slaughterhouses, he said.

Greene added the menu will be the same as it was prior to the meat recall. He has emphasized taking a cautious approach before putting beef back on the menu after it was discovered by the Humane Society that Westland had slaughtered and helped distribute meat from downed cattle.

— Daniel Tedford