The Hamilton Spectator today reports that an alert principal intercepted 1,500 Hershey Peanut Butter Cups potentially contaminated by salmonella which flooded a Hamilton high school Tuesday.
The story says that the bars — identified as Hershey products recalled in November and believed stolen from a recycler — were brought to Mountain Secondary School by students who found them in a dumpster behind a closed variety store nearby.
Principal Virginia McCulloch said she and vice-principal Patrick Elliott noticed the bars appearing in the halls 20 minutes before classes ended on the last day before exams.
Eric Matthews, manager of Hamilton’s health protection branch, praised McCulloch’s quick thinking and the students’ willingness to turn in the candy.
There is no evidence anyone was selling the bars at the school, he said.

Note: Back in November fears of salmonella contamination drove chocolate-maker Hershey to recall a wide variety of its chocolate bars and candies made at its Smiths Falls, Ont. plant. The company identified soy lecithin as the contaminant, though both it and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency received heat from the media for refusing to reveal the suppliers identity. For more, read: How the chocolate got spilled will not be told,  The sweet taste of truth archived at iFSN. More of the recalled chocolate bars were discovered last week in a Lindsay, Ont. convenience store. For the complete story, see: Potentially dangerous  chocolate found in  Lindsay  corner store.