Nestlé baby milk recall in Europe

Swiss food group Nestle has recalled baby milk reported to be tainted with traces of ink used in the packaging. The company says the substance, which has been identified as Isopropilthioxantone (ITX), is not dangerous to health.

The products were sold in Italy, France, Spain and Portugal. Italian police confiscated around 30 million litres of baby milk after tests showed some of it had been contaminated. The brands concerned are Nidina 1, Nidina 2 and Latte Mio.

A Nestle spokesman says the amount concerned in Italy was two million litres and that the amounts seized in other countries was significantly less. The spokesman also notes a new packaging process has been put in place to prevent the contamination and that the recall would not have a significant impact on the company’s results at a group level.

The Dutch subsidiary of the Swedish packaging company Tetra Pak confirmed that it had produced the packaging for the recalled products, but was aware of the problem and had already changed its production methods.

Italian Agriculture Minister Gianni Alemanno has called for tests to see if babies given the contaminated milk over a prolonged period faced health risks.