Lin Chen/Wen
For the administrative fine of 9.09 million yuan by the Shanghai Market Supervision and Administration Bureau, Abbott told the financial network that the "food and other packaging materials, containers, means of transport and other pollution" mentioned in the penalty announcement refers specifically to the fact that in December last year, the 900 grams of 900 grams of Abbott Platinum YouenMeili formula milk powder was detected in a very small amount of vanillin.
The source of vanillin, according to informed sources, is mainly due to the fact that the pipeline is not completely cleaned after the production of products containing vanillin in the pre-sequence, so that the post-sequence products are doped. Abbott said that the company has completed the recovery of all the batches of products left in the market around the beginning of February. The production line for this imported product has also been re-optimized.
This morning, Caijing learned that the Shanghai Municipal Supervision Bureau has imposed an administrative penalty on Abbott Trading (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. on May 6. The content of the penalty is confiscation of goods, confiscation of illegal gains of 3,437,407,290 yuan, and a fine of 9,093,140,580 yuan.
The high fine stemmed from Abbott's detection of vanillin in a section of milk powder for infants and young children who were not allowed to add spices.
According to GB 2760-2014 "Food Safety National Standards for the Use of Food Additives Standards", where the scope of use covers infant formula food from 0 to 6 months, no food flavors shall be added.
Song Liang, a senior dairy analyst, told Caijing that vanillin, as a kind of flavor, can improve the aroma and taste of food, and infants and young children may rely on it. Among them, synthetic vanillin costs less, and naturally extracted vanillin at higher prices is safer.
Abbott explained that the product involved this time is batch number 18042NT, and the production date of Abbott Platinum Yoenmeili formula milk powder on June 3, 2020 is 900 grams of 900 grams. "Vanillin was not added to the formulation of the product and was found to be caused by a vanillin-containing product previously produced in this batch."
Caijing Sankei searched in the official store of Abbott Taobao and found that the 1st stage of Abbott Platinum YouenMeili formula milk powder was shown to be imported from Ireland, with a single can of 289 yuan. The 2-stage ingredient list of the same series contains flavourings, mainly vanillin and ethyl vanillin. However, Abbott did not clearly respond to whether the so-called "pre-order" products were the same series of second-stage milk powder.
Image source: Abbott Platinum YouenMeili Formula 2 (courtesy of Abbott Taobao official store)
According to the above-mentioned national standards, vanillin, ethyl vanillin and vanilla bean extract (extract) can be used in the formula of larger infants and young children, and the maximum dosage is 5mg/100mL, 5mg/100mL, and appropriate amounts according to production needs. Infant cereal supplements can also use vanillin, with a maximum use of 7mg/100g.
However, products including pasteurized milk, cream, rice, edible starch, honey, drinking natural mineral water, tea, coffee and other products shall not add food flavors and flavors.
Image source: GB 2760-2014 "National Standard for Food Safety" Standard for the Use of Food Additives