Hallmark Meat Packing

Leave no patty unturned, no meatball overlooked. That was the mandate late last week as school district officials across the Southland tried to identify all meat that had come from a Chino-based slaughterhouse accused of distributing ground beef from at-risk cattle. This is not the first recall to affect California schools -- tainted strawberries and spinach have also caused scares in recent years.

Susan Hartley knows exactly where the now-shuttered Hallmark meat plant is: The high-walled compound sits just six blocks from her office. But until 143 million pounds of beef from the company were recalled this week, the Chino Valley Unified School District food director had no idea some of the beef served in her cafeterias came from the old dairy cows slaughtered just around the corner.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Edward T. Schafer said Friday that the nation's largest beef recall had set back negotiations to ship U.S. beef to Japan and South Korea. Those markets were closed to the U.S. cattle industry in 2003 after a scare over bovine spongiform encephalopathy, better known as mad cow disease. Schafer said at a convention of meatpackers and processors that he was hopeful trade talks would continue, but that the Westland/Hallmark Meat Packing Co.