Reports from local media outlets based in Tennessee revealed that students in the Hawkins County district were served with pork that had been frozen between 2009 and 2011. So far, no sickness caused by eating the pork has been reported.

As a result, the district launched a meat inspection program that involves getting inventories of all currently frozen meat items and discarding those that are outdated. The new inventory system went into effect on Friday.

"There were some meats with dates of 2009, '10, '11 in the freezer," said Hawkins County Director of Schools Steve Starnes. "Our child nutrition supervisor had the cafeteria managers look at the meat, do the tests, and see if it was OK."

There was no information on whether the meat was tainted after it had been frozen all those years and then thawed and served.

The school district officials learned about the old meat after being alerted by Michael Herrell, a Hawkins County, Tennessee commissioner who is also a parent. According to Herrell, he received a photo of the six-year-old pork through a text message sent by a concerned cafeteria worker at Joseph Rogers Primary School.

The photo showed the meat in an unappetizing state. However, it also revealed the date of the meat's packaging, which caused the district officials to come up with stricter policies on school-served lunches.

"These high-schoolers — they understand if they see something they are not going to like, they don't eat it," said Herrell. "But when you get to these kindergartners, first and second graders, do they really know if the meat is bad or not?"

The discovered pork, which turned out to be six years old, was not actually served at Joseph Rogers and instead was served at several other schools on April 22. In one school cafeteria, lunch workers were told to make gravy in order to hide the meat's foul taste.

"The meat was bad," said by a cook at Cherokee High School. He was allegedly told by the manager to cover the meat with gravy "to give it a better taste."

Starnes said that the district is implementing a new inspection system in order to prevent a future mishap. New FDA guidelines, which recommend that meat should be stored and used within 12 months, will be strictly observed.

"We want parents to feel safe that when they are sending their children to school, we are providing them with a quality food service program," added Starnes.

Photo: Robert Couse-Baker I Flickr 

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