If you’ve been a bit wary about what’s being served in your school cafeteria, turns out, you have reason to be. If you haven’t been, well, perhaps you should take a closer look.

As Congress gets ready to reauthorize the School Nutrition Act, USA Today has been looking into the food served in schools, particularly meats. What they’ve found is that federal standards are lax enough that meat rejected by fast-food restaurants and consumers still can be served in schools.

Photo courtesy Stockvault

Already, one story about tainted meat has the U.S. Department of Agriculture vowing to make changes in its system for notifying school systems of recalls and possible contaminations. This came after shipments of potentially tainted beef were shipped to schools this summer.

But there may be a lot more to this story, and from what USA Today has uncovered it looks like powerful lobbyists representing the agriculture have been pushing inferior products into the school lunch program. Today, USA Today reports on the standards set for meat in school lunches, and writes:

“The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the meat it buys for the National School Lunch Program “meets or exceeds standards in commercial products. That isn’t always the case. McDonald’s, Burger King and Costco, for instance, are far more rigorous in checking for bacteria and dangerous pathogens. They test the ground beef they buy five to 10 times more often than the USDA tests beef made for schools during a typical production day.”

Another article looks at the market for “spent hens”—old hens that are no longer able to produce eggs and have often spent their lives in dirty, crowded cages. The meat from these hens is tough and stringy–and is most often sold for pet food and school lunches or used for compost because there is little consumer demand for it, USA Today finds.

Trade publications for the egg industry, USA Today reports, often contain articles on ways to get rid of old-hen meat. And some researchers believe that it is more likely to be contaminated with salmonella or other diseases. Of course, young children are more vulnerable to these infections than adults because their immune systems are less mature.

If it’s enough to make you become a vegetarian, here’s some good news. One trend we’ve been hearing a lot about lately as schools strive to make their meals more nutritious is the growing option of vegetarian and vegan selections. Baltimore school cafeterias, for instance, now host “Meatless Mondays” and other districts are finding that many students, not just those who are vegetarians, want a vegetarian option. The Miami Herald this week reported on new veggie burgers, nuggets, and other items being served in local cafeterias, to the delight of many students and staff.

“The time to do this is now,” Penny Parham, who oversees food services in the Miami-Dade district, told the Herald. “Our kids are so savvy. They want food that’s good for them. We have to be meeting that demand.”

In the meantime, I’m thinking peanut butter sounds much better than chicken for lunch today.

Joetta Sack-Min, Associate Editor