Milk Jugs Filled With Sanitizer Sent To Massachusetts Schools

BOSTON — A messy mixup for some Massachusetts schools after some received milk containers from Garelick Farms filled with sanitizer instead of milk in their cafeterias.

Oddly enough, last week, several students were hospitalized in Camden, New Jersey, after accidentally drinking Guida's Dairy milk cartons that also contained nontoxic sanitizer in some of the cartons.

Boston Public Schools immediately took action after they received a letter from Garelick Farms saying a limited number of Dairy Pure 1% low fat half-pint cartons were "inadvertently filled with food-grade sanitizer diluted with water during production."

"Boston is one of several school districts that received a delivery of tainted milk from Garelick Farms," BPS spokesperson Jonathan Palumbo told Patch. "We immediately removed the milk from our schools and destroyed it all."

The cartons of Dairy Pure 1% low fat reportedly had a “watery substance” in the carton, according to the letter from Garelick Farms.

The exact number of affected cartons involved in the matter is unclear.

Palumbo told Patch they identified the milk cartons by the date affected and notified staff to dump all cartons dated April 10 and 11 as a precaution.

BPS says they immediately contacted the supplier to request an investigation and a plan to prevent this from happening again while informing the Boston Inspectional Services Department, which deployed staff to ensure the product was disposed of.

"All potentially affected product has been retrieved from Boston Public School locations, and evaluation and testing for flavor, odor and appearance was performed," Garelick Farms said in the letter. "While there is not a health or food safety risk associated with this product, it does not reflect our quality standards."

Garelick Farms issued a statement saying, "Nothing is more important than the well-being and health of those we serve. We immediately took action to retrieve any potentially affected product and began testing this product to verify there is no food safety risk associated with this product."

"After a detailed review, it was determined that food-grade sanitizer diluted with water was introduced during production of a limited number of Dairy Pure 1% low-fat half-pint cartons," Garelick told Patch. "The impacted cartons have a sell by date of APR 10. All potentially affected product has been retrieved."

The affected product is not available at retail outlets for consumer purchase, and Garelick Darms says no other products have been affected.

On March 30, staff at the Early Childhood Development Center in the Parkside section of Camden called 911 after "25 children ingested milk from sealed cartons with an unidentified substance that had an antiseptic-like odor to it," according to Camden County.

A total of 45 students and one staff member from both early education centers were sent to various hospitals around Camden, according to the county said.

The state Department of Agriculture says they have launched an investigation to find out how the sanitizer, which is used to clean the machine that fills the cartons with milk, ended up in the milk cartons.

No additional information was immediately available.