DALLAS — For the thousands of schools that opened their doors this week, there is one big concern: Making sure the eggs served to students for breakfast are safe.
News 8 checked with every major district across North Texas on where our schools get their eggs; we were assured that the odds of a child being fed tainted eggs at school are virtually nil.
At the very moment the federal government issued its recall notice for half a billion shell eggs, school food service directors like Michael Rosenberger at the Irving ISD were automatically notified.
"We get updated as it happens," he said. "It's literally up-to-the-minute info about food recalls," he said.
Rosenberger has another way to know his eggs are safe: The recall is limited to fresh eggs in shells; Irving ISD doesn't use fresh eggs. Cafeterias in the district rely on frozen, liquid and powdered egg products, all of which have been Pasteurized — a process that kills all dangerous pathogens.
"The Pasteurization process would kill the salmonella — if there had been any — in those eggs, but we have no indication from the USDA, our distributor, or the food manufacturers that any of those were in these products," Rosenberger said.
News 8 checked with all of major districts in North Texas; all assured us that they do not get egg products from any of the suppliers involved in the egg recall.
Several school systems — including Dallas, Fort Worth and Arlington — also say they don't use raw egg products.
Mansfield said it occasionally uses fresh eggs, but won't be ordering any until the salmonella outbreak is over.
The food products sent to school have tracking numbers and codes, which makes it easy to check where they came from.
But with so few fresh eggs being served, this appears to be one thing parents don't need to sweat about as the school year gets under way.
E-mail greaves@wfaa.com
