Who is USDA’s 1st client, the public or the industry?

In 2000, the Agriculture Department declared it would match the strictest standards in the business. Since then, however, top-tier businesses have evolved even more rigorous standards, while the USDA has lagged behind. It's hard to understand why. Cost? Jack in the Box spent less than an extra penny per pound to make its standards tougher, and most processors can already meet them when asked.

But the USDA doesn't ask, and that's not the only way it shortchanges school kids:

-- The USDA buys meat for the school lunch program from the lowest bidder among those certified to meet USDA standards. But at least one certified bidder — Beef Packers Inc. of Fresno — has recalled tainted meat twice this year and earlier was suspended from the school lunch program three times.

-- The USDA oversaw the two Beef Packers ground beef recalls this year but allowed some meat produced within the recall window to go to the federal school lunch program anyway.

-- The USDA helps egg producers by buying "spent hen" meat from hens past their egg-laying prime and passing it on to the school lunch program. The chicken is so unappealing that Campbell Soup stopped using it more than a decade ago.

-- The USDA does not enforce a law that requires that school cafeterias be inspected twice a year to prevent unsafe practices, even though state and local health authorities fail to do this in more than a quarter of all schools. The law provides no penalties, but it does require schools to give inspection reports to anyone who asks. Couldn't the USDA ask, and post the results online? Alerting parents might be more effective than penalties.

No doubt part of the reason for USDA's laxity is its dual mandate to regulate the agriculture industry while also promoting it. A similar conflict of interest in air safety regulation was eliminated years ago after it was identified as a contributor to plane crashes.

The same should be done with food safety. The USDA's record suggests that it doesn't quite grasp the idea that its most important client is the public it's supposed to protect, not the industries it oversees.