Cancer Group Wants Hot Dogs Off CCS Menu

COLUMBUS, Ohio—If you have children, you just might have a pack of hot dogs in your refrigerator.
Now, a non-profit cancer education group wants them and other processed meats pulled off school lunch plates.
The Cancer Project released a report on Thursday, giving Columbus City Schools a failing grade when it comes to the meat it serves students, NBC 4 reported.
CCS is not alone. There is a long list of schools the report said are failing.
The Cancer Project is now asking the USDA to stop distributing hot dogs and other processed meats through the national school lunch program. They said the processed meats have been shown to increase the risk of cancer in adulthood.
However according to the American Meat Institute, a panel of government, university and industry experts cast doubt on claims linking processed meats and cancer at The International Association for Food Protection’s annual meeting in Columbus in August.
The petition, filed by the Cancer Project, calls attention to a recent survey showing that Columbus City Schools has received a failing grade for the amount of processed meat in its schools’ meals.
Forty percent of breakfasts offered on the regular menu in CCS contained sausage or other processed meats. There has not been any response yet from the USDA in regards to the report.
NBC 4 spoke with Jeff Warner with Columbus City Schools, who said that eliminating processed meats would severely limit the meat options for students and would be too expensive. But, Warner said, the district follows and will continue to follow National School Lunch dietary guidelines.
The American Academy of Pediatrics said the issue has not yet popped up on its radar.
For more information on meat safety, click here.
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