REIDSVILLE, N.C. – The Rockingham County Health Department wants parents of Reidsville High School students to know disgusting-looking pink meat burgers recently served in the cafeteria are edible.

School and health department officials scrambled to explain why “fully cooked” beef patties served to students last Friday were pink and red inside after a picture posted online sparked outrage, WFMY reports.

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The issue is one of the latest in a flood of food quality issues in public schools since federal restrictions championed by first lady Michelle Obama went into effect in 2012. More than 1.4 million students have dropped out of the National School Lunch Program because the federal regulations on calories, fat, sodium, sugar, and other elements have rendered school lunches inedible. The problem has gotten so bad students coined the Twitter hashtag #ThanksMichelleObama to highlight their nauseating school food online.

Rockingham County Schools assistant superintendent Sonja Parks told the news site the repulsive pink mush resulted from school officials improperly cooking the “meat,” and alleges the food was not dangerous for students.

“At Reidsville High School the hamburgers were steamed instead of baked, causing the enzymes to turn the meat red,” she wrote in an email to WFMY.

The district’s food service provider elaborated further.

“There is an explanation for why fully-cooked products revert back to a pink pigment – a natural chemical reaction can occur with meat products when they are placed for a period of time in a high-temperature/low-oxygen container or appliance, such as steam table pans, steamers, Combi-Ovins and any other environment where the product may stay moist and hot,” according to Advance Pierre Foods.

“We have noticed that on occasion, this chemical reaction causes the pigment of some of our products to change back to pink. This pigment is known as globin hemochrome and is completely harmless and does not in any way affect the safety or taste of the product.”

“Regardless if the burgers are safe,” Meagan Richardson posted to Facebook, “it looks disgusting. I certainly wouldn’t eat it.”

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“No wonder my son comes home starved!” Tammy Martin added. “I wouldn’t eat that crap either!”

Rockingham County Health Department spokeswoman Tara Martin assured students and parents the burgers are completely safe.

“There’s no danger to anybody consuming this particular burger,” she said, adding that the burgers were cooked at 190 degrees, well over the 135 degrees required by the health department. “It would be a quality issue versus an issue with somebody getting sick.”

“The Rockingham County School system – all of the cafeterias are probably some of our cleanest eating establishments in Rockingham County,” Martin said.

District officials also issued a statement to explain why the burgers look so revolting, and vowed to try to prevent it from happening again.

“On Friday, November 6th RCS introduced a ¼ lb. hamburger to our high schools. When the meat arrived it was fully cooked.  The directions stated to bake the hamburger.  At Reidsville High School the hamburgers were steamed instead of baked causing the enzymes to turn the meat red.  No students or staff were not affected by the way the food was prepared,” Parks wrote.

“We have checked with the company Advance Pierre and they have verified that the hamburger was fully cooked.  In response, the principal apologized for this error and the cafeteria staff will be more vigilant in following directions on the preparation of all food.  We will continue to work with staff to ensure that the students are served high quality items prepared to the specification required.”

In hundreds of school districts, school officials have simply given up trying to prepare foods under the federal regulations that students will actually eat. Experts believe school food waste has skyrocketed by an additional $1 billion a year because many students who still “eat” at school simply dump it in the garbage.

At Nativity Catholic School in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, school cooks Rita Dobbins and Michael Mangerson said complying with the federal restrictions, and required paperwork, is more trouble than it’s worth, WJFW reports.

“It was quite a few hours,” Dobbins said she spent doing paperwork to participate in the National School Lunch Program. “I would say half my day.”

“How many calories, how much sodium, measuring everything, and then recording everything,” Nativity principal Shirley Heise said of the workload that comes with federal subsidies to participate in the federal lunch program.

It’s for those reasons and others the school followed the lead of other area private schools – St. Francis Xavier in Merrill and St. Anthony’s in Park Falls – and dropped out of the National School Lunch Program.

“Since (Dobbins) had a chance to use her creativity, the food has been better, she’s happier and I think the kids are happier too,” Mangerson told the news site.

What was a fun job that turned tedious under the federal regulations, is now “fun again,” Dobbins said.

“We can just kind of relax and have a good time and say ‘Oh, this is a good recipe; let’s try it.”