By Elizabeth Hovanesian and Alex Pineda:

When students at Daniel Pearl Magnet High School (DPMHS) eat lunch from the school cafeteria, they expect their meals and beverages to be fresh.

This was not the case in the early weeks of the new school year when several students received spoiled milk with their lunch.

“I usually didn’t check my milk but now I do since I almost drank spoiled milk,” freshman Alex Terminasyan said.

Students were surprised to see their milk was curdled even though the expiration date had not yet passed. Several students complained to Principal Deb Smith.

“I walked around and told all the students to throw it all away,” Smith said as she took control of the situation.

Throughout lunch, Smith walked around DPMHS giving new milk to those who had the “spoiled and curdled” milk.

As time passed by, cafeteria manager Kathy Mrasz, contacted the milk company to complain because the milk was going bad prior to its printed expiration dates.

It was made clear that it was not the cafeteria staff’s fault. Instead, it was due to the milk company’s complications with refrigeration in their delivery vehicles, according to Mrasz.