HAWKINS COUNTY, Tenn. -- Kids at a school district in Tennessee were served meat from 2009 at school cafeterias. The meat had been in the freezer for several years before being served last week. There were no reports of any student getting sick.
"They go to school and that might be the only meal they get all day long and it just very upsets me that these kids are going to school to get that meal," father and county commissioner Michael Herrerll said. "It just didn't go over well with me that I heard we were feeding these kids the meat that's dated 2009."
Herrell said a cook at the Cherokee High School also told him the meat was bad, but the cafeteria manager told the worker to cover it with gravy to give it a better taste.
The USDA guideline for quality and taste for pork roast is between four to 12 months. Hawkins County Director of School Steve Starnes said he planned to follow the guidelines and implement new procedures.
"We also began inventory on all of our frozen food items," Starnes said. "[We want] to make sure we're not going to be incorporating not only the package date, but also the delivery date on our inventory items, make sure we know exactly when those items came in."
The school system also planned to start random quarterly inspections.
