Franklin County schools deal with contaminated chocolate milk

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) - On Friday, one Franklin County school district dealt with what they said was a contaminated supply of chocolate milk. Western Mass News spoke with students who said it was a conversation held across school that day, and revealed what was inside those cartons.

Seventh-grade student Janna-Lee claimed, “It smelt really bad. Smelt like crusty socks and vinegar mixed together.”

Janna-lee wasn’t talking about a class experiment, she was talking about chocolate milk from the cafeteria. On Friday, students of Great Falls Middle School and Turners Falls High School were served contaminated chocolate milk. Students told us it had an unforgettable smell, but the sealed cartons looked normal.

Janna-lee added, “The expiration date said the 25th was the date and it was still bad.”

Kourtney Cummings, an eighth-grader at Great Falls said, “All the other milks seemed fine… they didn’t smell, my friend just had normal milk and it didn’t smell.”

According to a staff email sent to our newsroom, the supply of chocolate milk cartons was filled with a “white/clear cloudy liquid with a bleach/vinegar odor.”

Superintendent of the Gill Montague regional school district, Brian Beck, told us that on Friday, a student went to the nurse’s office with the milk saying they didn’t feel well, and that the milk smelled weird. The nurse agreed and contacted administration and food service staff.

All potentially contaminated milks were removed.

Students were notified to not drink the milk and return any they got from the cafeteria.

The Turners Falls Fire Department was called to identify possible milk contaminants. The fire department then reached out to the Massachusetts State Hazmat Response Team to conduct sampling.

The Department of Public Health, Montague Board of Health and Regional Public Officials were also contacted to distribute the information.

We learned the milk was distributed to the high school, middle school and Sheffield Elementary. Hillcrest Elementary School and Gill Elementary School did not receive these orders of milk, but still inspected theirs and found no contaminants.

An investigation is underway, but in the meantime, students said they’ll be bringing their own lunch for the most part.

“I normally bring my lunch. Sometimes I’ll get a lunch if it seems nice,” said Cummings.

All the school districts in the area were contacted, as they all get their milk from the same distributors and plants. The investigation into the incident is ongoing.