Milk Free of Pesticide, Tests Reveal

Final tests show no pesticide residue in Lady Lee brand milk, and the product is expected to be back on store shelves today, a state Department of Food and Agriculture spokeswoman said Monday.

About 230 Lucky supermarkets across Southern California and Las Vegas pulled cartons of the milk off their shelves on Sunday, when a private laboratory reported finding residue from the agricultural pesticide Diazinon in some milk samples, said Lucky spokeswoman Judy A. Decker.

However, state tests showed the lab’s results were a “false positive,” state spokeswoman Tina Taggart said. The original testing was done as a matter of routine and not because tampering or contamination was suspected, Decker said.

Repeat Procedures

Orange County Public Health Officer L. Rex Ehling said test discrepancies are not unusual, adding, “That’s the reason you repeat tests.”

It is unusual, however, to pull a product off the shelves without first confirming the results, Ehling said. Lucky decided to do that, and Ehling characterized the action as “a cautious thing to do.”

In March, Lucky supermarkets recalled ice cream products from 463 supermarkets because glass fragments were found in some of the containers. Lucky resumed production after investigators concluded that glass could not have entered the containers during production.