The Beef on Mad Cow: UCLA assures students dining hall meat is safe
By Paunie Samreth
Jan. 19, 2004 9:00 p.m.
Beef and cheddar sandwich.
It was on the dinner menu when thousands of undergraduates
returned to life in the residential halls this year.
Normally this menu item usually wouldn’t raise any
questions, but this year, students are returning from winter break
and with the December discovery of the first case of mad cow
disease in the United States.
“We develop our menu quarterly,” said Charles
Wilcots, assistant director of UCLA Dining Services.
However, this doesn’t mean dining services won’t
pull items off the menu in the middle of the quarter.
For example, when green onions were confirmed as the cause of a
hepatitis A outbreak in Pennsylvania in November 2003, UCLA Dining
Services reacted.
“As soon as the first report came out about green onions,
we stopped serving raw green onions,” said Connie Foster,
associate director of Dining Services.
In the case of beef, there was no cause for concern, Wilcots
said.
As soon as reports of the infected U.S. cow were released,
however, dining services posted a letter on their Web site
emphasizing the safety of the beef they served in the residential
dining halls.
Dining services obtain their meat from vendors who follow
stringent United States Department of Agriculture guidelines,
Foster said.
“Our specification for ground meat calls for feed to be
less than 30 months old, which is below the incubation period for
BSE,” she said.
Additionally, Dining Services works closely with UCLA
Environmental Health and Safety to implement programs relating to
food service safety and sanitation.
“We checked with (Dining Services) first thing after
winter break and they confirmed … that they didn’t receive
any of the recalled meat,” said Steve Fuller, environmental
health specialist.
Dining Services has not received any complaints about serving
beef, nor have they noticed a drop in dorm residents’ beef
consumption.
“Only at first when it happened did I stop eating beef,
but after a day I felt it was fine,” said Courtney Cheny,
first-year communication studies student.
Many students who live outside the residential halls also
haven’t changed their eating habits.
“I don’t think anything is contaminated down
here,” said Brandon Goehring, a third-year English
student.
Some students’ concerns, however, are influencing their
eating habits.
“I know that the risk of getting mad cow is probably slim
to none, but I’d rather play it safe,” said Rochelle
Gold, a first-year undeclared student.
Jeffrey Miller ““ professor of microbiology, immunology and
molecular genetics at UCLA ““ believes the discovery of an
infected cow in the United States should be taken seriously.
“The cow showed symptoms of mad cow disease and instead of
holding that cow or its products, it was distributed and even sold
before the test results came in,” Miller said.
“That doesn’t show common sense; the test results
are meaningless,” he added.
Cows that show symptoms of BSE are known as downers and
represent half a percent of all cattle processed in the United
States.
In early 2003, a bill was presented to Congress to prevent the
slaughter of downed cattle, but it failed to pass.
“If that was kept in the bill, this incident would never
have happened,” Miller said.
Days after the announcement of an infected cow, the Secretary of
Agriculture announced changes that would be made to protect the
United States from future cases of mad cow disease.
According to the Department of Agriculture Web site, USDA Food
Safety and Inspection Service inspectors will no longer mark cattle
tested for BSE as “inspected and passed” until
confirmation is received that the animals have, in fact, tested
negative for BSE.
