LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Jefferson County Public Schools pulled all "fresh" milk from cafeterias this week after what the district called a “quality issue.” But some students and parents said expired food has been served before, and they question whether JCPS is being fully transparent.
Last week, 11th grader Maven Merritt said he was served shelf-stable milk at Jeffersontown High School that was five months past its best-by date.
“Imagine cotton balls and yarn with glue,” Merritt said, describing the taste. “And you are swishing that around your mouth saying, ‘Oh, that might be bubbles.’ It wasn’t bubbles.”
Merritt snapped a photo of the carton, which showed a best-by date of March 1, 2025. According to the USDA, that date marks when a product is expected to have the best flavor or quality, not a safety deadline. Still, Merritt said it made him sick.
“I felt so sick the entire day. I went home, I puked it up. My family was outraged,” he said.
He took his concerns to the school board, and the board said they addressed the issue.
“I wasn’t too trustworthy that something was actually going to happen because we got expired food the next day,” Merritt said.
The next day, he said, students were served a cinnamon pastry two months past its best-by date.
JCPS acknowledged staff tossed one case of expired shelf-stable milk at Jeffersontown last week.
This week, on Monday, a Southern High School parent said her son was also served bad milk.
“He said when he was dumping out the milk, it was coming out chunky toward the end,” she said.
She told WDRB her son stayed home sick the next day, and she told her son's school about the bad milk.
JCPS sent a letter to families Wednesday saying, “This morning, during our daily quality checks, we identified a quality issue with the fresh milk supply. We want to assure you that this issue was discovered before any of the impacted milk was served, and no students have consumed it.”
But later, the district backtracked and wrote, “Some JCPS students at a few schools complained that their milk 'tasted funny' during breakfast this morning.”
JCPS said some students may have drank the milk — "cartons that look like little houses" — during breakfast and the earliest lunch periods Wednesday. Most students in the district, however, received shelf-stable milk after the milk in question was pulled.
"We are not aware of the milk at these few schools containing any contaminants. We believe this is simply a quality and taste issue," JCPS told families. "... if your student complains about being sick, we will follow our usual protocols and have them report to the school nurse’s office to be checked out," JCPS told families.
“To ensure the safety and well-being of all of our students, which is our top priority, all fresh milk has been taken out of our school cafeterias effective immediately,” JCPS said in its letter to families. “The affected milk has been removed, and our milk vendor will be picking it up for replacement.”
The district would not name the schools affected but confirmed five elementary schools received the milk. Officials said they are not aware of any other expired food being served this school year.
Merritt said he and other students got sick from the milk and wants JCPS to take responsibility.
“I and many others most definitely consumed said milk and got sick,” he said. “They are responsible for this, and they can’t keep sweeping things like this under the rug.”
The Southern High School parent said she has lost trust in the district.
“I’m done with JCPS,” she said.
JCPS said it is meeting with its supplier to determine what went wrong.
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