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Mayor Wu: Tainted milk in Boston schools ‘unacceptable’

BOSTON — Late last week, some Boston school kids got an unpleasant surprise in the lunchroom ‐- when they opened cartons of milk. A source tells Boston 25 News students at Jackson-Mann and Winship Elementary Schools complained the milk smelled.

And apparently for a valid reason: The cartons contained a food-grade sanitizer, diluted in water, used to flush production lines. The milk originated at the Garelick Farms plant in Franklin and was part of a production batch from April 1. The company pinpointed the time of production to three minutes just before 3 a.m.

In a statement, the company said, “This is an isolated incident for Dairy Pure product produced at our Garelick Farms plant...that only impacted the Boston Public School district, and a small number of their schools.”

Nonetheless, the school district took widespread action -- purging schools of Garelick Farms containers with expiration dates of April 10 and 11.

A source said apparently no children actually drank the tainted milk -- and Mayor Michelle Wu says no students were harmed. But she called it unacceptable that the contaminated containers ever left the Franklin plant.

“It’s really shocking and it’s horrible to think something like that could slip by. And hopefully moving forward it will never happen again,” said Megan Ragab, a paraprofessional at the Jackson Mann School.

Garelick is taking steps in that direction. In a letter, the company said it will retrain staff in the proper flushing of production lines. Quality Control testing will also get a boost. Three samples will now be examined to ensure exclusion of sanitizer.

The Boston incident is eerily similar to one that happened in New Jersey about a week ago.

Dozens of young children in two Camden schools drank milk from Guida, a Connecticut dairy, that was also tainted by food-grade sanitizer. Some parents have since filed suit over medical costs.

Previous coverage below:

[‘Tainted’ milk cartons ‘inadvertently’ filled with sanitizer and sent to Boston schools and others]

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