000226 Chicken Nuggets In School Lunches Are Safe

Washington - Chicken nuggets made at Gold Kist Inc plants are safe to eat, despite a recent newspaper report alleging that some diseased food has found its way into the school lunch program, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.

“We have no reason to believe product leaving these Gold Kist plants is anything other than safe and wholesome,” said Tom Billy, administrator of the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service.

The USDA, he said, “maintains a strong inspection presence...and inspectors have the authority to take action to ensure that adulterated products do not leave the plant.”

The Austin American Statesman reported earlier this week that schoolchildren in Texas and 30 other states were being fed chicken nuggets made in part from diseased poultry at Gold Kist plants in Alabama. The newspaper quoted federal inspectors at the plants, who said the food was unwholesome because it was made with small amounts of meat from chickens with sores, bruises and pus.

Some school districts in Texas, Missouri, Ohio and Oregon have temporarily stopped serving the chicken until they receive more information, according to the report.

Gold Kist, the nation's second-largest poultry processor, said its products were safe and no illnesses had been linked to the chicken.

The company is also a major supplier to USDA, which runs the federally-subsidized school lunch program.

“Our children and the children of thousands of our employees who actually process chicken for the school lunch program eat our products,” John Bekkers, Gold Kist president, said in statement. “No one in the company would put their own children at any risk. We do not produce or distribute tainted chicken.”

The federal inspectors quoted by the Austin newspaper blamed a USDA experimental inspection program at one of the plants for poor quality chicken slipping through the cracks. The USDA's pilot program depends more on scientific testing than on traditional visual inspection of animal carcases for bruises, lesions, hair, broken bones and other contamination.

The federal inspectors union filed an unsuccessful lawsuit to try and stop the pilot program, which it says gives companies too much responsibility for safety.

The program also seeks to redeploy some of the USDA's 7,000 inspectors now assigned to production lines to other jobs.

The USDA expressed confidence on Friday that the experimental inspection program was working well to protect consumers from contaminated meat and poultry.

“Under the new system, FSIS sets standards for food safety and other consumer protection concerns and through inspection, verifies that plants are meeting these standards,” Billy said.

The plants in the pilot program have “four times” as many food safety checks as traditional plants, he said. “It is the right thing to do for the American public.”

Gold Kist processes about 15 million chickens each week, and distributes its products nationwide. The company is based in Atlanta.

The USDA plans to soon expand the new inspection program to 19 more chicken plants, and seven turkey and pork plants.

Consumer groups have generally backed the USDA effort to modernize inspection methods, saying the old “poke and sniff” technique by line inspectors did not detect harmful microscopic bacteria.

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