I don’t know what’s up with USA Today, but lately they’ve had some incredibly good stuff on food safety. They ran a great piece yesterday on school lunch purchasing standards that I bet will provoke some policy changes.
Turns out that, because of litigation and liability risks, fast food restaurants have gotten serious about minimizing the contamination of the meat they purchase. Yet the standards used by the USDA in purchasing meat for school lunches have barely budged.
It’s reached the point that in some cases, the top fast food restaurants have requirements in place that are ten times more rigorous than those used by the National School Lunch Program.
Change seems inevitable. New York Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy says:
Why are we even looking at giving [schools] … food that wouldn’t be accepted by a restaurant? That’s absolutely crazy.
Not just crazy, indefensible. Link.
