USDA orders largest beef recall: 143.4 million pounds

— -- The U.S. government on Sunday ordered the largest beef recall in U.S. history — 143.4 million pounds — and said the meat has been used in school lunches and food assistance programs.

The government portrayed the action as precautionary and classified it as a Class II recall, meaning there is little likelihood of illness.

The beef dates to cattle slaughtered two years ago, starting Feb. 1, 2006, at Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing, based in Chino, Calif. The USDA said it believes most already has been eaten. It will remove the rest from inventories.

"We don't know exactly where all the product went" but will "cast a wide net to make sure that we can find all the product that we can find," Ken Petersen at the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service said in a conference call with reporters Sunday.

Most of the beef was sent to distribution centers in bulk packages.

About 150 school districts around the nation have stopped using ground beef from Hallmark Meat Packing, which is associated with Westland. Two fast-food chains, Jack-In-the-Box and In-N-Out, said they would not use beef from Westland/Hallmark.

Jack in the Box, a San Diego-based company with restaurants in 18 states, told its meat suppliers not to use Hallmark until further notice, but it was unclear whether it had used any Hallmark meat. In-N-Out, an Irvine-based chain, also halted use of the Westland/Hallmark beef. Other chains such as McDonald's and Burger King said they do not buy beef from Westland.

Operations have been suspended at the slaughterhouse, and the facility continues to be under investigation, the USDA said.

The meatpacker is accused of improperly slaughtering what are called "downer" cattle — those unable to walk to slaughter.

Such cattle raise the fear of mad cow disease and are more likely to carry E. coli and salmonella bacteria because they typically wallow in feces and their immune systems are often weak.

The government said it had inspectors present "continuously" at the plant, as is standard procedure.