Wyeth Recalls Infant Formulas
November 4, 2002
RADNOR, Pa.--On Nov. 1, Wyeth Nutrition, a maker of soy infant formulas, initiated a voluntary recall of all batches of store-brand powdered milk- and soy-based instant formulas produced between July 12 and Sept. 25, 2002. The company reported low levels of Enterobacter sakazakii, a bacterium commonly found in the environment and not typically seen as a food pathogen, were detected when doing tests of retained samples manufactured at its Georgia, Vt.-based facility. The brands that are affected by this recall include Baby Basics, CVS, Home Best, Healthy Baby, Kozy Kids, Hill Country Fare, Little Ones, Parent's Choice, Safeway Select and Walgreen's.
"When you ship product to the market in any sense, you always keep batches behind and test those batches to make sure all of the previous checks were accurate, [which acts] as sort of a safeguard," a Wyeth spokesperson told INSIDER. "The interesting thing is that the Food and Drug Administration [FDA] has not mandated for nutritional companies to test for this particular bacterium, but we've been doing it anyway. Mead Johnson had a similar problem several years ago [with their formulas] and so since that time we have been testing for [the bacterium] despite the fact that there is no FDA mandate."
To date, there have been no reports of illness associated with the affected formulas. The company reported that although the incidence of becoming sick from E. sakazakii is low, it may cause health problems, such as diarrhea, especially in high-risk infants (i.e., pre-term infants born with poor immune systems).
In April 2002, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advised health care providers that high-risk infants should always be fed liquid formula, which is commercially sterile. Wyeth stated that its powdered formulas are marketed for healthy, full-term infants. The company's (www.wyeth.com) liquid formulas were not affected by the recall, nor were any powdered formulas that had been manufactured at any other facility.
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