<div id="subtitle">School cafeterias go too long without inspections to ensure theyÕre sanitary</div><div><p> A high school cafeteria worker in North Dakota had spent part of a weekend in 2005 sick, suffering from vomiting and diarrhea. But by Monday she returned to work, chopping lettuce for lunches.</p><p> Within two days, 52 students and eight teachers were ill with the same symptoms. Health officials determined they were ill from norovirus, which the worker had spread — she didnÕt wear gloves, a basic health requirement.</p><p>USA Today reported recently that no food-borne illness has sickened more school children in the past decade than norovirus and none is linked as often to improper food handling in cafeterias.</p><p>One of the problems, the newspaper reported, is that more than 26,000 school cafeterias donÕt meet a federal health standard that requires inspections twice a year. Nearly 30 percent of the nationÕs schools failed to have inspections over the past two years. In Nevada, 17 percent of school cafeterias failed to meet the standard. In California, more than half of the schools failed to comply. Inspectors look for basic food handling issues and make sure food is kept at correct temperatures, kitchens are cleaned and workers wear gloves.</p><p>The lack of inspections is just one of a number of concerns about school cafeterias and the food they serve. In a series of stories covering the issues, USA Today has reported that fast-food chains and major retailers such as Costco have higher standards for beef and chicken than the Agriculture DepartmentÕs school food program. The schools regularly receive old chickens called Òspent hensÓ that KFC and Campbell Soup Co. reject because of the quality of the meat. Jack in the Box and other hamburger chains are far more rigorous in testing hamburger meat for contaminants than the federal government.</p><p>Health officials say the poorer quality of meat and the lack of inspections, which lessen the assurance that food is properly handled and cooked, increases the likelihood of illness.</p><p>ÒWe simply are not giving our kids in schools the same level of quality and safety as you get when you go to many fast-food restaurants,Ó said J. Glenn Morris, a professor of medicine at the University of Florida and former head of the federal office that investigates food-borne illnesses. ÒWe are not using those same standards.Ó</p><p>That is unacceptable. The nation should have stringent requirements on food and food handling and enforce them. As it is, the countryÕs schoolchildren are needlessly in danger just by ordering lunch.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=65852559&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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