# Elementary school serves floor sealant to students instead of milk **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 16, 2022, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elementary-school-serves-floor-sealant-to-students-instead-of-milk/966304 "2022-06-16T15:04:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2022, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elementary-school-serves-floor-sealant-to-students-instead-of-milk/966304/41 "2022-06-17T12:35:52Z")
Hmm, maybe floor sealant is an unheralded cure for [leaky gut syndrome](https://badgut.org/information-centre/a-z-digestive-topics/leaky-gut-syndrome/)? ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2022, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elementary-school-serves-floor-sealant-to-students-instead-of-milk/966304/42 "2022-06-17T14:09:01Z")
Given the choice I think I’d rather eat semen-tainted dressing than floor sealant milk. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2022, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elementary-school-serves-floor-sealant-to-students-instead-of-milk/966304/43 "2022-06-17T14:09:54Z")
> [@a6ka97](#): > > My employer (food processing facility) has a strict policy that EVERY container with something in it (or had previous contents before 3X rinsing) has a label on it. Fireable offense if you don’t label a container after putting something in it. My employer also requires that containers be properly labeled. Not a fireable offense, since we don’t deal with food processing - but still a matter of safety and good laboratory practices. Not clear what happened in Alaska, i.e. was this stuff improperly labeled as milk (in which case the server should be off the hook), not labeled at all (in which case the server should be held liable), or clearly labeled but not read (in which case the server should be held liable). Also, presumably someone went into a fridge to get milk and came out with this stuff instead. Why would floor sealant have been stored in a fridge at all? Maybe this was a case of two instances in which someone didn’t read the label: first when putting bags of sealant in the fridge, and then one more time when loading the bags into the milk dispenser. > [@kenobi\_65](#): > > It sounds like the school had a milk dispenser – if it’s what I think it is, it’s conceptually like a soda dispenser, where you put the cup under a spout, push a lever or button, and it pours milk from a reservoir into your cup. > > That sort of dispenser typically uses a large bag filled with milk, which is then replaced with a new bag when it’s empty. Here’s a picture of one of those, with the panel open to show the innards, including the milk bag: I Googled “water based floor sealant”, and got this: > **[Bag, 1 gal Container Size, Floor Finish](https://www.grainger.com/product/6CTR5)** > > Looking for 3M, Bag, Floor Finish? Find it at Grainger.com®. With over one million products and 24/7 customer service we have supplies and solutions for every industry. At least one milk dispenser system out there uses bags like this: [https://www.officejava.com/PRO-2032-17323](https://www.officejava.com/PRO-2032-17323) There’s a size difference (5 gal vs. 1 gal), but it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that other sizes are available, and somehow this school ended up with sealant and milk in bags of the same size (or that some zombie didn’t seem to notice that today’s milk bag was unusually small). Looking at the closures on those bags, it’s entirely possible that the milk dispenser nozzle fitted the floor sealant bag very nicely. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2022, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elementary-school-serves-floor-sealant-to-students-instead-of-milk/966304/44 "2022-06-17T14:14:10Z")
My first question after all this would be, why do milk and floor sealant come in similar enough packaging that this is even possible? ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2022, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elementary-school-serves-floor-sealant-to-students-instead-of-milk/966304/45 "2022-06-17T14:34:11Z")
# [**SEALANT MILK … IS PEOPLE !!!**](https://youtu.be/4UPDUpjkHg0) ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2022, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elementary-school-serves-floor-sealant-to-students-instead-of-milk/966304/46 "2022-06-17T14:37:02Z")
👏 👏 👏 ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2022, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elementary-school-serves-floor-sealant-to-students-instead-of-milk/966304/47 "2022-06-17T14:56:36Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > Given the choice I think I’d rather eat semen-tainted dressing than floor sealant milk. Hence the outrage: the students weren’t given a choice. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2022, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elementary-school-serves-floor-sealant-to-students-instead-of-milk/966304/48 "2022-06-17T15:31:13Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > My first question after all this would be, why do milk and floor sealant come in similar enough packaging that this is even possible? Probably because it’s the most economical packaging for either product, and because regulations don’t forbid it. Until today, food safety regulators likely had not considered (or dismissed as unlikely) a triple failure sequence: namely, that toxic sealant would be stored in a place where someone might look for milk (that by itself is probably already against regs), that the sealant’s packaging would be compatible with the milk dispenser, and that someone would load a bag of sealant into the milk dispenser without reading the label. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2022, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elementary-school-serves-floor-sealant-to-students-instead-of-milk/966304/49 "2022-06-17T17:57:47Z")
From the more informative [WaPo article](https://wapo.st/3tHF59s) (gift link): > [The school district] said that one pallet of floor sealant had been “mistakenly delivered” in Spring 2021 to an off campus warehouse where school district food supplies are stored, “at the same time as four pallets of shelf stable milk.” > > “The pallet of floor sealant remained untouched in storage with other food products until this week when NMS ran short on milk and sent staff to retrieve shelf stable milk.” > > On Tuesday morning one box of the floor sealant in the pallet was delivered to a food worker at the day care and others were sent to 2 other nearby schools but “they remained unopened.” ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2022, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elementary-school-serves-floor-sealant-to-students-instead-of-milk/966304/50 "2022-06-17T18:16:38Z")
What I find interesting is the non-scientific poll attached to the linked article from the OP. It asks whether or not the poll-takers thought this was done intentionally or accidentally. The results of the poll indicated that _56%_ of respondents thought it was done intentionally, and only 26% thought it was accidental. (The rest either weren’t sure or had no opinion.) I know it’s just an online poll, but are people really that gullible and/or paranoid that they honestly think this was done _intentionally_? ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2022, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elementary-school-serves-floor-sealant-to-students-instead-of-milk/966304/51 "2022-06-17T18:52:45Z")
I could tell right away what happened. A bag of sealant like this [one](https://www.grainger.com/product/48TH96?ef_id=Cj0KCQjwzLCVBhD3ARIsAPKYTcSywApQY-3xhZDrwLzGf_7SPBSpQsksfw3cjxpvi4GOUCfdYHr9m4gaAu_zEALw_wcB:G:s&s_kwcid=AL!2966!3!496359974839!!!g!1660709431585!&gucid=N:N:PS:Paid:GGL:CSM-2295:4P7A1P:20501231&gclid=Cj0KCQjwzLCVBhD3ARIsAPKYTcSywApQY-3xhZDrwLzGf_7SPBSpQsksfw3cjxpvi4GOUCfdYHr9m4gaAu_zEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds) was used to refill the milk dispenser instead of an actual milk bag. I have a similar experience as this. I once replaced the orange juice bag with a similar looking, clear plastic bag of eggs. Not toxic, but still gross. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2022, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elementary-school-serves-floor-sealant-to-students-instead-of-milk/966304/52 "2022-06-17T19:11:54Z")
Slightly weird to me that the school relies on a catering company for meals. When I was in grade school in the 1970s, as far as I knew, the food we ate was prepared and served by school employees (lunch ladies, in other words). ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2022, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elementary-school-serves-floor-sealant-to-students-instead-of-milk/966304/53 "2022-06-17T19:16:58Z")
It’s not uncommon today for school systems to hire a food service vendor (a.k.a. caterer) to operate their lunch program. Sodexo, which is one of the big names in food service, has an entire division focusing on providing food service for K-12 schools. (Amusingly, on preview, I see that the header on their webpage appears to have an undeleted comment from being reviewed by someone within the company.) > **[Sodexo food service and facilities management for schools](https://us.sodexo.com/industry/schools.html)** > > Operating over 9,000 schools, just in North America, we are the 53-year-experts in helping schools save money, while improving health, happiness, and scores. \>\> rework to get in something besides save money ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2022, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elementary-school-serves-floor-sealant-to-students-instead-of-milk/966304/54 "2022-06-17T19:41:17Z")
I recently went to my local AMPM gas station for gas and a soda, went to the fountain drink dispenser, but the Pepsi button but Mountain Dew came out. Then I hit the Mountain Dew button and Pepsi came out. And I thought the employees at my gas station really screwed up! ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2022, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elementary-school-serves-floor-sealant-to-students-instead-of-milk/966304/55 "2022-06-17T19:43:48Z")
Did the water taste like floor sealant? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2022, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elementary-school-serves-floor-sealant-to-students-instead-of-milk/966304/56 "2022-06-17T19:49:10Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > My first question after all this would be, why do milk and floor sealant come in similar enough packaging that this is even possible? Packing is made in fairly standard sizes and styles and the milk producer and floor sealant producer just happened to pick similar packaging? > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Slightly weird to me that the school relies on a catering company for meals Meh, probably common these days. Using a catering company means the school doesn’t have to maintain a kitchen themselves, or cooks/food handlers. In some circumstances it may be more cost-efficient. My family moved around a bit when I was young. Even in the 1970’s there were schools that had in-school kitchens and others that had system-central kitchens and food was prepared then shipped out to the various schools. Using a catering company isn’t that much different. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2022, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elementary-school-serves-floor-sealant-to-students-instead-of-milk/966304/57 "2022-06-17T19:51:52Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Packing is made in fairly standard sizes and styles and the milk producer and floor sealant producer just happened to pick similar packaging? I get that. And I get that the bag of sealant can fit in the spot that the milk bag would take up. What doesn’t make sense is the the nozzle on the chemical bag could fit the spigot of the milk dispenser. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2022, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elementary-school-serves-floor-sealant-to-students-instead-of-milk/966304/58 "2022-06-17T19:53:35Z")
I understand that using outside caterers is common. When I was a kid war movies and TV shows like MASH showed members of the armed forces making and serving the food and I expect that the Defense Department also outsources that role now. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2022, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elementary-school-serves-floor-sealant-to-students-instead-of-milk/966304/59 "2022-06-17T20:08:49Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > expect that the Defense Department also outsources that role now. And has for decades. I caught this transition 20 years ago within US Army services while I was assigned to a joint command post inside a mountain, operated by the Army. The first year of my tour, food services were provided by uniformed soldiers, food was high-quality, and cost was flat-fee for all you could take on one tray. Then that chow hall transitioned to a contractor. Prices went up, everything became a la carte, and quality… it’s the only place I saw cockroaches baked onto strips of oven-fried bacon and where I was served a brown egg. Not a brown-shelled egg, a boiled egg where the “white” was medium beige and smelled of literal rotten eggs. So a rotten boiled egg. Pretty good indicator of what “lowest bidder” means. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2022, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elementary-school-serves-floor-sealant-to-students-instead-of-milk/966304/60 "2022-06-17T20:44:24Z")
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