Contaminated Milk Supplier Visited By Feds

NEW BRITAIN, CT — Officials from the FDA, Connecticut Department of Agriculture and Camden County were at New Britain-based Guida's Dairy on Thursday afternoon, investigating how milk contaminated with sanitzer was served to preschool children.

Guida's Dairy was the company whose milk sent a staff member and more than 40 people from four Camden City schools to several Camden County hospitals on Wednesday. It is also the processor of the milk that is sent to Mercer County, Kim O'Brien, a Guida's Dairy spokesperson, told Patch.

"Nothing is more important than the well-being and health of those we serve," a statement from Guida's Dairy that was emailed to Patch Thursday afternoon read. "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 continued, "while we believe the product impacted is limited, out of an abundance of caution, we are disposing of any 1%, low-fat half-pint milk cartons with a sell-by date of APR 11. The affected product is not available at retail outlets for consumer purchase."

Guida's Dairy recommended that all "institutional customers" follow its lead and toss the milk that meets date criteria out, according to the Connecticut Department of Agriculture.

A preliminary investigation shows the contaminated milk is limited to milk within the time range of 4:30 and 7:30 and code stamped on the cartons, the Connecticut Department of Agriculture added.

Guida's Dairy said that said it is "working with all appropriate regulatory agencies to make them aware of this issue and taking the necessary corrective actions."

The New Jersey Department of Health sent out an alert on Wednesday evening that asked all local health departments to check each public school’s cafeterias for the presence of Guida’s brand milk, of any type, size and code date and issue an embargo or otherwise prohibit the distribution of the milk."

In the alert, the New Jersey Department of Health also identified the source of the contamination as peroxyacetic sanitizer and said it was found in Guida’s 1% Lowfat Milk, code dated 09-183 Apr 11 B2.

"Other code dates of Guida’s milk may be affected as well," the New Jersey Department of Heath cautioned.

Camden County plans to fully investigate the circumstances that led to the staff member and students being sent to the hospital Wednesday.

"We expect a full and thorough investigation that will ensure that this never happens again to a single solitary student in Camden County," Dan Keashen, a spokesperson for Camden County, told Patch.