FOOD SAFETY: Slaughterhouse's meat banned

Two major hamburger chains and dozens of school districts around the nation have banned meat from a Chino, Calif., slaughterhouse after a video showed workers brutalizing sick and crippled cows, officials said Friday.

School districts in California, Arizona, Hawaii, Utah, Montana, Minnesota, North Dakota, Washington and other states have stopped using ground beef from Hallmark Meat Packing Co. and its associated Westland Meat Co. until completion of a federal investigation.

Of the eight truckloads of beef North Dakota has received this school year through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National School Lunch Program, five included ground beef that originated from the Hallmark plant, said Linda Glaser, director of child nutrition and food distribution programs for the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction.

Some of the meat undoubtedly was served to students, but there have been no reports of illness or meat quality problems, she said.

The federal government asked state education officials to contact school districts and tell them to set aside beef connected to the slaughterhouse. Glaser said that was done Thursday. The beef in question is being left in school freezers.