On May 16, in response to the penalty for the detection of trace amounts of vanillin in milk powder, Abbott China replied to 21st Century Business Herald that the product involved was a single batch of Abbott Platinum YouenMeili formula milk powder 1 stage 900 grams (product batch 18042NT, production date June 3, 2020), and the company has completed all the recovery of the batch of products remaining in the market.
On May 6, the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Market Supervision imposed an administrative penalty on Abbott Trading (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. According to the disclosure, abbott Trading (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. was "confiscated of goods, confiscated 3,437,407,729 yuan of illegal gains, and fined 9,093,140,058 yuan" for "producing and operating food and food additives contaminated by packaging materials, containers, means of transport, etc."
This is the largest fine issued to milk powder brands in China in the past three years.
According to the administrative penalty decision, the product involved in this time is a batch number 18042NT, production dated June 3, 2020 Abbott Platinum YouenMeili formula milk powder 1 stage 900 grams. After testing, the measured value of the vanillin project of the above batch of products is 171.6 μg/kg. Abbott imported 45,078 cans of the above batch of products from July to August 2020.
In its statement, Abbott China admitted that the batch of products involved was detected in a very small amount of vanillin during the sampling inspection of the State Administration for Market Regulation in December 2020, and the company also stressed that the very trace amount of vanillin detected in the batch of products was not harmful to the health of infants and young children, and the company attached great importance to this and took the initiative to launch a recall action.
According to the current 2760-2014 "National Standard for Food Safety Food Additive Use Standard", where the scope of use includes infant formula food from 0 to 6 months, no food flavors shall be added. Vanillin, ethyl vanillin and vanillin bean extract (extract) can be used in larger infant and infant formulas, corresponding to the maximum dosage of 5mg/100mL, 5mg/100mL, and appropriate amounts according to production needs.
As for why "very trace amounts of vanillin" are detected in a section of Abbott's milk powder? Dairy expert Song Liang believes that it is likely to be due to the unclean cleaning of the pipeline and cause cross-contamination. "But this mistake can be avoided, as long as the process is cleaned according to the requirements." Song Liang said that similar problems have occurred before, and in recent years, with the attention of enterprises has become rare, hoping that Abbott can strengthen the production management of products after this.
In recent years, with the implementation of the new registration system and the rise of local domestic milk powder, foreign milk powder brands have encountered a lot of pressure. According to Abbott's financial report, the company's total revenue of nutrition business last year was 3.11 billion US dollars, excluding the impact of foreign exchange, the total sales of nutritional products increased by 4.7%, of which international adult nutrition sales increased by 13.6% year-on-year, and international pediatric nutrition products sales fell by 4.1% year-on-year. Regarding the change in sales, Abbott said in its annual report that it was mainly "the decline in the infant and toddler products market in Greater China offset the growth in its sales of pediatric nutrition products in other countries and regions".
In the first quarter of this year, Abbott International Pediatric Nutrition sales (excluding foreign exchange impact) fell by 3.1% year-on-year, and U.S. pediatric nutrition sales fell 1.8%. The report pointed out that the decline in Abbott Pediatric Nutrition sales was mainly negatively affected by the higher base in the same period last year, when consumers increased their purchases earlier due to the epidemic.
"We apologize for the inconvenience caused to consumers by this matter, if consumers have this batch of products, they can call the official service hotline to 4008206111 for return and exchange consultation, and we will actively and properly handle related matters." Abbott said in a statement.
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