FRANKLIN — Garelick Farms says there is no health or food safety risk after at least two public schools, both in Boston, had milk containers filled with sanitizer instead of milk delivered to their cafeterias earlier this month.
“Nothing is more important than the well-being and health of those we serve,” Garelick Farms stated in a letter to Boston Public Schools in connection with the April 1 incident. “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.”
Boston Public Schools officials quickly disposed of the contaminated milk shipment after receiving the letter stating that a “limited number” of its Dairy Pure 1% low-fat half-pint cartons with the sell by date April 10 were affected.
The exact number of affected milk cartons is not clear. Additionally, Jason Palumbo, chief of communications for Boston Public Schools, said the school district requested an investigationfrom the supplier to prevent such a mistake from happening again.
Garelick Farms said the mistake occurred when a food-grade sanitizer diluted with water infiltrated the production process of the Dairy Pure half-pint cartons in Franklin, said Kim O’Brien, spokeswoman for Dairy Farmers of America, a marketing arm for the industry. Officials said all potentially affected products have been recovered or discarded.
Through O’Brien, the company said the incident impacted a small number of schools in the Boston Public School District and that the Dairy Pure product is not available for customer purchase.
WCVB-TV reported that the Massachusetts Department of Public Health said Garelick Farms “responded appropriately under federal and state laws.” A Department of Public Health Food Protection Program inspector was scheduled to visit the Franklin plant on Friday.
Garelick Farms, a subsidiary of Dean Foods, is headquartered on West Central Street.
The Boston incident happened about a week after 45 students and one staff member from two education centers in Camden, New Jersey, were hospitalized after they accidentally drank milk cartons from Guida’s Dairy that also contained a non-toxic sanitizer.
In a statement, Jenny Hofeditz, vice president of marketing and public relations for the Dairy Farmers of America, said: “While two of our plants — Garelick Farms in Franklin, Mass….and Guida’s Dairy in New Britain, Conn. — recently experienced issues with a non-toxic food-grade sanitizer diluted with water inadvertently getting added to some cartons during production, these are unrelated incidents with different circumstances.”
According to Hofeditz, the DFA is conducting an investigation and will carry out necessary corrective actions.