School districts notified of plastic in beef

Idaho’s Department of Education said many public schools received ground beef from a California company that’s now yanking its product on concern it may contain small pieces of plastic.

Agency spokeswoman Melissa McGrath said Tuesday that the move is not technically a recall, as was announced Monday. Under U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines, it is technically a product retrieval. A retrieval involves a lower food safety risk than a recall, McGrath said.

She said Monday that although beef from Central Valley Meat Co. was delivered to Idaho schools, no problems have been reported to date. We have a list of districts the meat was shipped to at http:// bit.ly/15h94nZ. Many of eastern Idaho school districts are on the list.

McGrath, who said the department was notified Monday, said districts that may have received this product were told of problems immediately.

Central Valley, which delivers products to Idaho schools through a U.S. Department of Agriculture program, has been in the news before.

Its slaughterhouse was shuttered temporarily in 2012 by federal regulators after they received undercover video showing cows — some unable to walk — being repeatedly shocked and shot before being slaughtered.