The European Parliament’s Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee has reportedly failed to block approval for an infant formula manufacturer’s claim that adding the fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) to baby food “contributes to the normal visual development of infants up to 12 months of age.” Although the application to include the health claim had already received favorable opinions from the European Food Safety Authority and European Commission, the committee MEPs last month voted against authorization, arguing “that there is no scientific consensus on the effect that DHA-fortified formula have on infants, that more research is needed on the possible effects, both beneficial and harmful, of DHA supplements, and that the health claim could be misleading.” But this resolution did not gain enough support in the April 4-7, 2011, plenary session of Parliament, which ultimately approved the DHA health claim by a margin of eight votes. Meanwhile, The Telegraph…
Tag Archives baby food
A federal court in Virginia has issued an order dismissing without prejudice claims filed against two insurers by a company that makes baby formula; the parties stipulated to the dismissal after similar litigation concluded with a defense verdict following trial in state court. PBM Nutritionals, LLC v. Arch Ins. Co., No. 09-194 (E.D. Va., order entered March 23, 2011). The matter reportedly involves the failure of a hot-water supply system that leached melamine and other filtration materials into eight days’ worth of formula production, contaminating $6 million in baby formula. The manufacturer has apparently recovered $2 million under a contamination policy issued by one of its insurers, but lost its bid to recover under other policies that contained “perils excluded” clauses and pollution/contamination endorsements. The perils-excluded clauses deny coverage for damages resulting from a pollutant discharge unless the discharge is caused by a “peril” insured against. The insurers relied on contamination endorsements that…
A recent study has claimed that, “among formula-fed infants or infants weaned before the age of 4 months, introduction of solid foods before the age of 4 months was associated with increased odds of obesity at age 3 years.” Susanna Huh, et al., “Timing of Solid Food Introduction and Risk of Obesity in Preschool-Aged Children,” Pediatrics, February 2011. Harvard researchers apparently followed 847 children enrolled in a pre-birth cohort study known as Project Vida, using “separate logistic regression models for infants who were breastfed for at least 4 months (‘breastfed’) and infants who were never breastfed or stopped breastfeeding before the age of four months (‘formula-fed’), adjusting for child and maternal characteristics.” The study findings apparently indicated that, among the formula-fed infants only, “introduction of solid foods before 4 months was associated with a six-fold increase in odds of obesity at age 3 years.” “One possible reason why we saw…
The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation has denied a plaintiff’s motion to centralize several lawsuits involving recalled infant formula, purportedly contaminated with insects, before a multidistrict litigation (MDL) court for pretrial proceedings. In re: Abbott Labs., Inc., Similac Prods. Liab. Litig., MDL No. 2211 (J.P.M.L., decided February 4, 2011). The panel noted that while it had centralized food-product contamination lawsuits in the past, it would not be appropriate to do so here because individual issues predominated over common ones. According to the panel, “discovery and motion practice may be expected to concern (1) the particular product each plaintiff purchased, (2) any injuries that consumption of the product caused, (3) whether the product contained beetles or beetle larvae, and/or (4) what advertising or other representations were made to each particular plaintiff (and, relatedly, whether the plaintiff relied upon those representations).” Still, the panel encouraged the parties to pursue a voluntary coordination strategy,…
The Chinese Ministry of Health has apparently announced an investigation into claims linking infant formula manufactured by Synutra International, Inc., to early onset puberty. According to state-run media, the ministry has assembled a panel of nine experts to examine whether the formula caused three infants ages 4 to 15 months to develop prematurely. The group will work with local authorities in Hubei Province to test milk powder samples taken from the homes of the infants in question. See Xinhau News Agency, August 12, 2010. The decision came after China Daily reported that doctors identified excessive levels of two hormones, estradiol and prolactin, in the children, thus sparking public speculation about tainted formula. Synutra, however, has since joined its milk powder supplier, New Zealand based Fonterra Cooperative Group Ltd., in denying the rumors, which have noted that both companies were caught up in a 2008 scandal over melamine-tainted dairy products. As Synutra…
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has issued an August 2, 2010, report urging member states to increase their monitoring of furan, a compound with aromatic properties that can form in a variety of heat-treated commercial foods and which has purportedly been shown to be carcinogenic in animal experiments. EFSA intends to use the report to support a dietary risk assessment on furan. It updates data submitted by 18 member states on furan levels in 4,186 foods sampled and analyzed between 2004 and 2009, with 8 percent of the samples reported as foods consumed. The report sorted data into 21 different food categories (five coffee and 16 noncoffee categories), with the highest levels of furan found in the five coffee categories compared to other food groups. The highest non-coffee maximum concentrations were found in the “baby food” and “soups” categories. “ Jarred baby food and infant formula are of particular…
“Don’t you love the idea of year-old infants drinking sugar-sweetened chocolate milk? And laced with ‘omega-3s for brain development, 25 nutrients for healthy growth, and prebiotics to support the immune system’?,” opines New York University Professor Marion Nestle in an April 26, 2010, Food Politics blog post decrying chocolate dietary supplements for toddlers ages 12 to 36 months. Claiming that consumers are paying 86 cents “for only six ounces of unnecessarily fortified milk plus unnecessary sugar and chocolate,” Nestle implies that chocolate- and vanilla-flavored formulas directly compete with milk as a weaning food. She also urges the Food and Drug Administration to issue warning letters to manufacturers whose products feature “front-of-package health claims clearly aimed at babies” younger than age 2. “No wonder Jamie Oliver encountered so much grief about trying to get sweetened, flavored milks out of schools,” writes Nestle. “Next: let’s genetically modify moms to produce chocolate breast…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) National Organic Program (NOP) has announced that its 2006 decision approving the fortification of organic infant formula and organic milk products with synthetic omega-3 fatty acid DHASCO (DHA) and omega-6 fatty acid ARASCO (ARA) resulted from an incorrect interpretation of nutritional guidelines and NOP board recommendations. Thus, DHA and ARA, present in 90 percent of organic infant formulas, will no longer be permitted in foods certified as organic, and NOP plans to issue draft guidance, subject to a 60-day public comment period, to “provide a transition time for businesses to reformulate products to comply with the regulations.” Organics watchdog Cornucopia Institute recently re-filed a complaint with the NOP contending that the use of DHA and ARA in organic infant formulas and organic dairy foods constitutes a possible violation of NOP regulatory standards. The institute claimed that a former NOP director overruled the determination of…
A federal court in Maryland has determined that it is not a convenient forum for the pursuit of claims by Chinese citizens seeking millions in compensation for the injuries allegedly caused by their children’s consumption of powdered milk formula and similar products tainted with melamine. Tang v. Synutra Int’l, Inc., No. 09-0088 (D. Md., decided March 29, 2010). The scandal led to a global recall of powdered milk products and resulted in the execution of several milk company officials found responsible for adding melamine to the products, purportedly to increase their protein content. The melamine allegedly caused the deaths of six infants and caused kidney stones and related injury to thousands of others. The government established a compensation program for affected families, but some sought increased damages in Chinese courts. The defendants filed a motion to dismiss on the ground of forum non conveniens, and the court discussed at length…
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has issued its opinion that the Immunofortis® in Danone Baby Nutrition’s infant formula does not, as the company claims, “naturally strengthen the baby’s immune system.” According to EFSA, the scientific evidence the company submitted (i) “had considerable limitations,” (ii) “was inconsistent,” and (iii) “was not convincing.” It concluded that the evidence was “insufficient to establish a cause and effect relationship between the consumption of Immunofortis® and the initiation of appropriate immune responses including the defence against pathogens.” The company apparently sought the opinion of the Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies as to its claim and provided 25 human study references and five non-human studies. See EFSA Journal 2010.
