U.S. Intervenes in Suit Against Former Beef Suppliers

WASHINGTON -- The United States has intervened in a civil lawsuit against two former suppliers to the National School Lunch Program – Hallmark Meat Packing Company and Westland Meat Company Inc. – for submitting false and fraudulent claims to the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Justice Department announced today. All ground beef containing defendants’ products was recalled by USDA as of Feb. 16, 2008, and defendants no longer supply beef to the National School Lunch Program or AMS. The National School Lunch Program is a federally-assisted meal program operating in public and nonprofit private schools and residential child care institutions. The program, established under the National School Lunch Act in 1946, provides nutri