San Diego : Tainted Milk Pulled From School Shelves

Chocolate milk was pulled from school shelves Tuesday morning after some cartons at San Diego High School were found to be tainted with a non-toxic chlorine solution, a school district spokeswoman said.

About 30 eight-ounce cartons of Foremost chocolate milk were found to be tainted with the cleanser, said Jane Boehrer, director of food services for the San Diego Unified School District. The discovery was made by 8 a.m. and although the problem milk appeared to be isolated at the high school, all chocolate milk was removed from district schools before lunchtime.

The problem with the milk, which was packaged at a Knudsen Dairy plant in the City of Industry, was traced to the process of cleansing the pipes between packaging runs, Knudson spokesman Tony Harris said.

A solution of chlorine and another non-toxic cleanser is flushed through the pipes between packaging of different milk products, he said. Some of the solution apparently remained in the lines when the first case of 30 eight-ounce cartons was filled.

One student at the high school swallowed a mouthful of the milk, Boehrer said, but no illnesses were reported. Boehrer said that the worst that could happen would be a “slight tummy ache,” because law requires that cleaners used in food processing be low in toxicity.