Student-Favorite Snacks Recalled Over Risky Foreign Material Contamination — Check Your Inventory
They are easy to eat in one bite. They are mushy and not so crunchy like fries. They are convenient. They taste like good memories... These are some of the comments students of Washoe County schools made in a 2019 podcast where NPR asked them about tater tots. Ever since they were invented by the Griggs brothers in the 1950s, tater tots have been ruling the school lunchrooms. In just one year, Americans consumed an estimated 36 billion tater tots, per CBS Sunday Morning. Lately, however, the shelves in the pantries of Washoe’s schools are no longer decorated with the popular Ore-Ida tater tot packets. After a student got a small cut on their finger, the school realized that the deep-fried potato snacks were contaminated with small glass-like objects and plastic-like pieces, according to a report by the Reno Gazette-Journal.
Inside the cafeterias and lunchrooms of Washoe’s schools, tater tots are the staple snack. As the lunch bell rings, students rush to relish these crispy, golden fried potatoes with assortments like ketchup, burgers, soups, cola, or French fries. In late November, an investigation by the Washoe County School District (WCSD) revealed the contamination, following which the snack was immediately pulled from the menus of the school lunchrooms. “Ensuring the safety of our students and staff is our highest priority, and we acted swiftly out of an abundance of caution. Our WCSD team worked diligently to review all information, collect samples, and coordinate closely with our partners,” the release said.
Eighteen district elementary schools across Washoe were impacted by the corrupted tater tots, including Esther Bennett, Rita Cannan, Roger Corbett, Edwin Dodson, Florence Drake, Elmcrest, Nancy Gomes, Desert Heights, Dorothy Lemelson, Lemmon Valley, Bernice Mathews, Robert Mitchell, Virginia Palmer, Peavine, Silver Lake, Stead, Kate Smith, and Verdi.
Further examination confirmed that the issue was external to the district’s operations. Concluding this, WCSD notified the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Northern Nevada Public Health. "The national distributor is conducting its own investigation and has issued a full recall of its tater tot products," the statement further read.
On the other side, the associated company, McCain Foods USA, initiated a voluntary product recall for its Ore-Ida Tater Tots produced at its Burley, Idaho facility, "due to the potential to contain pieces of plastic foreign material." The plastic pieces, they said, can cause injury if ingested.
Cautioning retailers in the recall letter, the company asked them to block the distribution immediately. If a customer has already purchased the product, the retailer should ask them to discard it. Meanwhile, customers are urged to destroy the affected item from their inventory and return a complete copy of the attached certificate of destruction to McCain, addressed to Beverly Hovey at Beverly.Hovey@mccain.ca.
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