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.
Abbott is a giant in the healthcare industry, with operations in nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and diagnostic products. According to the "2019 China's Domestic and Foreign Formula Milk Powder Market Share and Pattern Analysis", after Abbott launched organic milk powder in the Chinese market in 2015, its organic market share reached the first, accounting for half of the Chinese market. Since then, Abbott's performance in China has declined for many reasons, such as the decline in the birth rate of newborns, fierce market competition, the rise of domestic milk powder, and the previous Botox Oolong incident and milk powder counterfeiting incident.
On May 16, the relevant person in charge of Abbott publicly responded that the penalty was caused by the detection of vanillin in a sampling inspection by the State Administration for Market Supervision and Administration in December 2020 in a batch of 900 grams of Abbott Platinum YouenMeili formula milk powder (product batch 18042NT, production date June 3, 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. In 2019, global vanillin production exceeded 19,000 tons, and China, as the world's largest producer of vanillin, accounted for about 70% of the world's total production, of which about 60% of the production was exported.
Consult the pubmed database with the keyword "Vanillin"; “Vanillin+infant”; "Vanillin+health" searched, and really did not find negative reports about vanillin. Instead, it was found to be a bit magical, and it was found to be anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, antibacterial, antidepressant, etc.
In studies of flavor enhancers such as vanillin in milk powder, vanillin is generally cautious.
In the above document, there is such a paragraph that makes a more objective and detailed explanation of the policy on domestic vanillin and the potential harm of vanillin.
"In recent years, artificial seasonings, especially those in infant and toddler foods, have attracted more and more attention, such as vanillin and ethyl vanillin. Natural vanillin is extracted from vanilla beans, which is expensive, and what we eat is more synthetic, from low-cost raw materials. Vanillin and ethyl vanillin are the most commonly used flavoring agents in the food industry, ranking first in the world in production, and are listed in the "Generally Considered Safe" (GRAS) category by the American Association of Fragrances and Extract Manufacturers (FEMA) and are allowed to be used as food additives for flavoring in almost all countries. ”
"General doses are relatively safe to consume, but large intake may cause nausea, headaches, vomiting, and adverse effects on liver and kidney function, especially in vulnerable infants." In order to protect the health and safety of babies, China has established legal directives to control the level of infant flavor additives through maximum use. For infant formulas aged 0-6 months, no condiments should be added. In infants and children (6 months and children), only vanillin, ethyl vanillin and vanilla bean concrete (extract) are added, but the maximum use of vanillin and ethyl vanillin must be strictly adhered to less than 5 mg/100 ml. ”
Think about the editor is also stupid, how can there be clinical trials on infants taking vanillin, too inhumane. But think about it, its pharmacological effects should have a certain degree of impact on the burden of the kidneys, intestinal flora, nervous system, etc.
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 Market Development Foundation said it discovered that Nestlé had added sucrose and vanillin to some of its milk powder products, Wyeth and Kaifu. Subsequently, Nestlé promised to end the use of sucrose and vanillin in products for infants under 12 months of age.
However, after a year of "punching in the face", Nestlé was found to have only stopped using sucrose, and vanillin was still detected 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.
Why even in the face of huge penalties and the risk of brand image damage, milk powder manufacturers are still on the verge of temptation. It should be because vanillin contributes a lot to improving the taste of milk powder, and research data shows that vanillin can increase appetite and thus promote consumption.
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.
Content source: WeChat public account Scientific Research Cat
A Ph.D.'s blood and tears job search path: want to join a college? Please use me as a mirror to avoid the pit
Porous materials, a Nature
6 years of recruiting more than 8,000 people has caused controversy: how crazy is it for universities to cut leeks for young Doctors?
Special statement: This article is published only for the need to disseminate information, and does not represent the views of this public account; if other media, websites or individuals reprint and use from this public account, please apply to the original author, and bear the legal responsibility such as copyright.