CAMDEN, N.J. – New Jersey’s Department of Health is urging schools across the state to stop serving Guida’s Dairy milk after officials discovered a nontoxic sanitizer in some cartons served to Camden students, authorities said.
According to the Camden County Health Department, 25 students at the city’s Early Childhood Development Center “ingested milk from sealed cartons with an unidentified substance that had an antiseptic-like odor to it” on Wednesday morning. At least 32 students were taken to area hospitals and later discharged, the department said in a news release.
In a Facebook post shared shortly after 11 a.m. Wednesday, the Camden City School District said officials “determined that the substance found in the cartons is a nontoxic consumable sanitizer that runs through the vendor machines prior to milk.”
“Unfortunately, many cartons were filled with the sanitizer, sealed and then shipped out with the milk,” the post read. “We pulled all milk today and NO milk will be served until the investigation is completed. Emergency teams were dispatched to the school. No students are currently ill but were sent to the hospital as a precaution.”
Emergency crews also responded to the Riletta Twyne Cream Early Childhood Development Center and took five students to a local medical center, where they were later released, the county government said. Doctors from Cooper University Health Care went to the school to examine another 15 other students, “who were all cleared to go home,” the release said.
Overall, at least four schools were affected, the county government said.
“Officials are in communication with the milk company and are also locating and removing all the potentially affected product,” the release said. “The Camden City School District will be pulling all milk and will be suspending distribution until the investigation is completed.”
On Thursday, Connecticut-based Guida’s Dairy said in a statement that the diluted, food-grade sanitizer with a “chemical smell” was mistakenly included in some half-pint cartons of 1%, low-fat white milk, according to WPVI-TV and NJ.com. The company said it will dispose of the products, which have an April 11 sell-by date and are not sold by retailers, the news outlets reported.
“Once we were made aware of this issue, we took immediate action and tested impacted product to verify there is no food safety risk associated with this product,” the statement read.
The state’s Health Department said it “has requested that all local health authorities in New Jersey ensure that all cartons of this product be held until we get further FDA guidance,” NJ.com reported Thursday.
“A recall can only be issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or the manufacturer/producer of the product,” the department said. “This milk product was produced in Connecticut and at this point, neither the FDA or the producer has issued a recall.”
However, a county spokesman said the FDA visited the Guida plant on Thursday and was investigating the incident, according to NJ.com.
