Why is there vanillin in baby milk powder with frequent fines?
Most of the vanillin detected in recent years are foreign brands of milk powder.
Another imported milk powder company that sells in the Chinese market was fined heavily after it was found to contain vanillin that should not be present in the milk powder.
According to the information recently released by the Changsha Market Supervision and Administration Bureau, the first stage infant formula goat milk powder sold by Beenxi Company was found to contain vanillin during the supervision and sampling inspection, and was fined and confiscated a total of 6.9951 million yuan.
At the end of last month, the Beijing Municipal Market Supervision and Administration Bureau also announced that the Spanish Innobo 1 infant formula milk powder sold on JD.com was found to be unqualified for vitamin D and vanillin items.
For vanillin, the state has long stipulated that no vanillin should be added to the first stage infant formula milk powder.
However, a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily learned that in recent years, the market supervision department has repeatedly found vanillin in the first stage of infant formula powder, and most of these products are imported products, many of which are well-known Abbott, Mead Johnson and other big brands.
So, why is vanillin always lingering in the 1st stage infant milk powder that should be "pure"?
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Many milk powder companies receive huge fines
The administrative penalty decision recently released by the Changsha Market Supervision and Administration Bureau shows that on September 9, 2021, the sampling staff of the State Administration for Market Regulation found in the supervision and sampling inspection that the first stage of infant formula goat milk powder sold by Beenxi Company was included. The measured value of the vanillin project was 940.6ug/kg, which did not meet the requirement of "not to be used" in the "National Food Safety Standard for the Use of Food Additives" (GB2760-2014), and the inspection conclusion was unqualified.
In response, the Changsha Market Supervision Bureau imposed administrative penalties: 36,767 cans of Beenxi infant formula goat milk powder were confiscated; 1,228,400 yuan of illegal gains were confiscated;
The above fines and confiscations totaled 6.9951 million yuan.
Nearly 7 million yuan is not the biggest fine for vanillin.
In May last year, the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Market Supervision issued a fine of 9.0931 million yuan for the vanillin issue, which involved the first-stage Abbott Platinum Infant Formula milk powder, which was very popular in the Chinese market.
This is the largest fine issued to a milk powder brand in China in the past three years, and this incident has also been on the hot search.
In April this year, an administrative penalty decision published by the Guangzhou Market Supervision and Administration Bureau showed that Mead Johnson’s 1st stage platinum Rui infant formula milk powder was detected with ethyl vanillin and vanillin, and the measured values were 475.5 μg/kg and 296.6 μg/kg, respectively. μg/kg.
Mead Johnson Nutrition (China) Co., Ltd. was confiscated 600,000 yuan of illegal income and fined 1.29 million yuan.
Despite the huge fines, the reporter from Beiqing Daily noticed that most of the milk powder manufacturers that have detected vanillin in recent years have only recalled the same batch of products and removed other batches of products. Continued sales are not affected.
This means that, for the vanillin issue, although the country has made great efforts to supervise it, it seems to be calm to the manufacturers.
For consumers, the purchase of 1st stage infant formula milk powder containing vanillin is at most only a product recall refund, and if the child has already drank it, they will drink it.
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Vanillin basically appears in foreign brand milk powder
Stage 1 infant formula is the daily ration that infants from 0 to 6 months need to consume in large quantities.
According to the "National Food Safety Standard for the Use of Food Additives" (GB2760-2014), no flavorings shall be added to formula food for infants and young children aged 0 to 6 months, and the formula food for older infants and young children can use vanillin in limited quantities according to regulations.
A reporter from Beiqing Daily recently visited some supermarkets and mother and baby stores in Beijing to investigate the ingredient list of infant formula milk sold in the market.
The results showed that the first stage milk powder was not labeled to contain vanillin, while some brands added vanillin in the second and third stage milk powder, and some brands even added two kinds of vanillin.
In general, domestic milk powder has almost no formula with vanillin added, and some overseas milk powder has added vanillin, but the formulas of different series and different grades of milk powder under the same brand are also different. no added.
In the two series of milk powder "Jingzhi" and "Kinhu" sold by Abbott at the same time, "Jingzhi" does not contain vanillin, and "Kinhu" not only contains vanillin except for paragraph 1, but also has vanillin. Ethyl vanillin.
In addition, Abbott's complete nutritional formula food for special medical purposes "Little Ansu" also contains vanillin and ethyl vanillin, which is supplied to children aged 1 to 10 years old.
FrieslandCampina's "Royal Mei Su Jia Er" and "Me Su Jia Er" two series of 3-stage and 4-stage milk powder contain vanillin.
In addition, in Wyeth's "Qifu" and "Platinum" series of products, "Qifu" does not contain vanillin, while "Platinum" contains vanillin.
In addition, there are also some foreign brands of milk powder that do not contain vanillin at all, such as Aptamil, Aptamil, Nuoyou, etc.
Among the Chinese brands of milk powder, the reporter from Beiqing Daily inquired about Yilijin Lingguan, Yilijin Lingguan Sennamu, Yilijin Lingguan Zhenhu, Feihe Zhenzhi Organic, Feihe Zhenaibeihu Super Feifan, Feihe Xingfei Fan, Feihexing Feifan Zhuorui, etc., did not show the addition of vanillin in the ingredient list.
However, Biostime is one of the few Chinese milk powder brands that add vanillin. Its "Beta Star" and "Alpha Star" add ethyl vanillin and vanillin to the 3rd and 4th stage milk powder.
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Accused of stealing baby's 'first milk'
Regarding the detection of vanillin in the first stage of infant formula powder, the State Administration for Market Regulation has also stated that in addition to the problem of incomplete pipe cleaning, it is not ruled out that there are shoddy and fake products.
Vanillin is an edible spice. Because of its vanilla bean aroma and strong milky aroma, adding vanillin can make the baby formula taste better.
Therefore, some domestic milk powder companies told the reporter of Beiqing Daily that this actually formed an unequal competition, and it did not even rule out that some milk powders were competing for the "first milk" of newborns.
In fact, "first milk" is very important for milk powder companies, because it is difficult for infants and young children to "change milk" once they are accustomed to a milk powder flavor, which means that a child will be affected from birth to at least three years old. The benefits behind binding the same brand of milk powder are self-evident.
As early as 2013, CCTV exposed the situation that the "first milk" of newborn babies in many hospitals in Tianjin was monopolized by some foreign-funded dairy companies.
Some foreign-funded dairy companies use bribes to hospital personnel to allow hospitals to feed newborn babies their own brand of milk powder without parents' knowledge, so that children become dependent on certain milk powders for long-term profit.
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Was the addition of vanillin intentional or unintentional?
In response to the detection of vanillin in its own first-stage infant formula goat milk powder, Benxi (Hunan) Dairy Co., Ltd. issued a statement on its official website on July 11 in response, saying that the relevant batch of products did not contain vanillin. The reason for the qualification is that Xinyimei Nutritional Products Co., Ltd. mistakenly added vanillin when the base powder premixed ingredients during the production process.
In fact, among the vanillin milk powder companies that were detected, it was rare for companies like Benxi to directly admit to voluntarily adding them.
Abbott and Mead Johnson both mentioned "incomplete cleaning of production pipelines" when explaining the vanillin problem.
Abbott explained that when the production line of the Abbott Group's Irish factory was changed, the production pipeline was not cleaned thoroughly, resulting in the residual vanillin contained in the previous product in the pipeline, causing the pollution of the subsequent product.
Mead Johnson's explanation for this is the same, saying that when the Mead Johnson BV production line changed varieties, the production pipeline was not cleaned thoroughly, resulting in the detection of vanillin and ethyl vanillin in related batches of products.
In this regard, Song Liang, an independent dairy analyst, told the Beiqing Daily reporter that vanillin is characterized by being soluble in water and not easy to volatilize. Although vanillin is not artificially added to batches of milk powder, it may also be detected in milk powder.
He introduced that the current pipeline cleaning of the milk powder factory adopts a fully automatic CIP cleaning system, but if the cleaning time is too short, there may be residual vanillin.
However, he also pointed out that "incomplete cleaning" cannot be a shield for the appearance of vanillin. Effectively improving quality control according to the norms of different markets is a must for milk powder manufacturers.
In fact, in the past two years, some overseas milk powder companies have been greatly affected by the epidemic, and they have faced great challenges in production management and other aspects, which have had a certain impact on their safe production and raw material procurement.
A reporter from Beiqing Daily noticed that among the series of rectification measures recently announced by Beenxi Company, it included "the guidelines and arrangements for adjusting and optimizing the production plan of the factory; stopping the collinearity of vanillin-containing products such as adult milk powder, etc. production of products" etc.
This group of articles / reporter Zhang Qin
Coordination / Yu Meiying