June 14, 2005

Chinese authorities have pulled one of Nestlé’s best-selling baby milk powders off the shelves after tests confirmed the product contained dangerous amounts of iodine.  Jin Pai Growing 3-Milk Powder was found to contain over 150 mg of iodine per 100 g.  While Nestlé asserts that there is no cause for panic, experts say that babies who ingested the product might develop goitres as a result.  This is yet another incidence of baby formula having to be taken off the market because of errors in the manufacturing process.  Such events occur numerous times around the world every year, and demonstrate the inevitable dangers that commercial baby food present to the public.  A recent study of 141 powdered milk based formulas found that 14% were contaminated with Enterobacter bacteria, a common form of which is E. sazaaki, a bacteria known to cause the deaths of infants.  In 2003, 3 Israeli infants died after ingesting Remedia, a formula which was lacking the essential vitamin thiamine due to a manufacturing error. 

For a complete article on Nestlé’s Chinese formula see: