Vanillin "not fragrant": foreign milk powder problems are frequent, Abbott has been fined more than 9 million, and domestic milk powder has risen

Source of this article: Time Weekly Author: Special Correspondent Du Sumin

Because of the detection of vanillin in milk powder, it was fined more than 9 million yuan, and the American brand Abbott was pushed to the forefront of public opinion.

According to Tianyan, the Shanghai Municipal Market Supervision and Administration Bureau imposed an administrative penalty on Abbott Trading (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. on May 6. The reason for the punishment is "production and operation of food and food additives contaminated by packaging materials, containers, means of transport, etc.", and the content of the penalty is confiscation of goods, confiscation of illegal gains of 3.4374 million yuan, and a fine of 9.0931 million yuan.

On May 16, the relevant person in charge of Abbott publicly responded that the penalty was caused by a batch of Abbott Platinum YouenMeili formula milk powder 1 stage 900 grams (product batch 18042NT, production date June 3, 2020) detected a very small amount of vanillin in the sampling inspection of the State Administration for Market Supervision and Administration in December 2020.

According to the current "National Standard for Food Safety Standards for the Use of Food Additives" (GB2760-2014), infant formulas that cover 0-6 months of use shall not add any food spices, including vanillin. This is also the basis for Abbott's heavy punishment this time.

Vanillin is an organic compound extracted from vanilla beans, and most of the vanillins used now are synthetic. Because it has a strong milk fragrance, it can play a role in increasing fragrance and fixing incense, and is widely used in cosmetics, tobacco, pastries, candy, baked goods and pharmaceutical industries, and is one of the world's largest synthetic spice varieties.

According to the data report released by the New Thought Industry Research Center, in 2019, the global production of vanillin exceeded 19,000 tons, and the market size was about 430 million US dollars. As the world's largest producer of vanillin, China's output accounts for about 70% of the world's total production, of which about 60% of the output is used for export.

As a food additive, vanillin itself does not cause any harm to the human body.

On May 18, dairy expert Song Liang said in an interview with the Times Weekly reporter that the slight or trace amount of vanillin found in the milk powder basically does not have any impact on the baby, even in the first stage of milk powder will not cause any impact.

Although there is no impact, regulations still impose strict requirements on the use of vanillin. Song Liang believes that this shows that china has higher requirements for the safety and quality of products, so the use of many nutrients, edible flavors, and edible additives has been made very strict and harsh regulations.

"If you consume vanillin for a long time, it may cause the baby to develop a dependence." Song Liang pointed out that if the fragrance is heavy, the baby will be more willing to eat, and the amount of food eaten will become larger. However, he also stressed that because infant milk powder of 0-6 months is not allowed to add vanillin itself, children generally do not eat this vanillin, so the impact of long-term consumption is actually not established.

The penalty decision issued by the Shanghai Municipal Supervision Bureau pointed out that abbott Ireland factory (Abbott Ireland) did not clean the production pipeline thoroughly when the production line changed varieties, resulting in the residual vanillin contained in the previous product in the production pipeline, resulting in the contamination of the vanillin component of the above batch of products.

Abbott said that the company has completed the full recovery of the batch of products left in the market.

In fact, Abbott's detection of vanillin is not unique among foreign milk powder brands. Prior to this, brands such as Nestle in Switzerland, Xibao in Germany, and Convido Hollyley in the Netherlands have also been criticized by the official notice and market for vanillin.

In February 2018, the Changing Markets Foundation (CMF) released an investigative report saying that Nestlé had found that it had added sucrose and vanillin to some of its Wyeth and Qifu milk powder products. Subsequently, Nestlé made a commitment to end the use of sucrose and vanillin in products for infants under 12 months of age.

After a year, CMF tracked it again and found that Nestlé had only stopped using sucrose and still detected vanillin in baby milk powder in Hong Kong, China. In response, Nestlé said that it is looking for a substitute for vanillin and will remove this formula in the future.

In the past year, Xibao and Convido Hollyri have also been blacklisted by regulators for vanillin.

On November 6, 2020, the Beijing Municipal Market Supervision and Administration Bureau issued an announcement showing that a batch of Xibao Beixi infant formula (0-6 months old, 1 paragraph) was found to be ineligible to meet the national food safety standards. Xibao issued a statement in response, saying that the reason for the situation was the temporary adjustment of the production plan of the factory, the factory's spray drying tower produced other products containing vanillin before scheduling this batch, and stressed that it was only an occasional event.

In the same month, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Market Supervision and the Guangdong Provincial Market Supervision Bureau respectively issued unqualified food risk control notices for the same batch of Hollyley Infant Formula Milk Powder, both due to the detection of vanillin and ethyl vanillin components.

In February this year, Hollyray was on the list for the third time, and a batch of Convido Hollyrian Infant Formula (1 stage) was still detected with vanillin and ethyl vanillin.

Song Liang said that the reason why foreign milk powder frequently appears on the list is that some foreign brands of milk powder formulas are allowed to add vanillin, and the formula is usually fixed after registration through the national formula, so some still retain the addition of vanillin.

At present, some foreign countries do not have clear restrictive regulations on the addition of vanillin, such as the United States and Europe are independently decided by enterprises whether to add.

After the "poisoned milk powder" incident in 2008, domestic milk powder suffered a long period of trust crisis. Nowadays, the quality problems frequently exposed by foreign milk powder are regarded by many people as an opportunity for domestic substitution, but the reality is that domestic milk powder has long risen.

Song Liang said that after 2018, the market share and overall sales volume of domestic milk powder have increased significantly, and the market share has basically reached 55%. "Affected by the safety incident of foreign milk powder, the share of domestic milk powder may be further expanded." Song Liang said.