Some Rocklin High School students with religious dietary restrictions have unknowingly consumed beef in certain school lunch items and blame the school for failing to provide adequate information. These food items include the chicken and turkey sticks, which contain beef collagen, that used to come with the protein pack as well as the brown gravy that comes with the chicken & mashed potato bowl.

Hindu junior Aniridh Annareddy, who refrains from eating beef for religious reasons, said, “I was shocked. I ate beef like 30 times without even knowing it.” He only found out about the beef content of the chicken and turkey sticks after looking at the nutritional information on the package. The menu linked to the Rocklin High School website does not provide detailed information about the ingredients of each lunch item. For example, at the time of writing, the chicken and mashed potatoes bowl’s ingredients are listed as “Gravy Brown, Chicken Smackers, Mashed Potatoes, Corn, Canned” — nowhere is there any indication that the brown gravy contains beef. Furthermore, each menu item contains a label that clearly states “Religious Restrictions: None,” even for those items that are confirmed to contain beef. This website provides nutritional information for the entire district.

Information about the beef contents of food items is not available in the lunch line, either. When asked whether the chicken and turkey sticks contain beef, two members of the lunch staff stated that they did not know. The head of nutrition services at Rocklin High School declined to comment, citing a lack of knowledge about religious dietary restrictions.

Students move quickly through the lunch line, which serves several hundred students each day, so it is not feasible to check the nutritional information of packaged food items before picking them up. Additionally, food items like the chicken and mashed potato bowl do not have any packaging. Annareddy only discovered that this item contains beef after he saw the label on the container from which the gravy is served.

Charles Douglas, the director of nutrition services in Rocklin Unified School District, said, “Items used to be designated on the menu. … We have a new system and haven’t quite figured out how to designate items on the online menu.” He said that students can always ask the staff for information.

“The school should provide more information,” said Annareddy. “They should mention it. Even the lunch ladies don’t even know it.”