• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Italy police seize 'contaminated' Nestle baby milk

Posted on: Tuesday, 22 November 2005, 08:44 CST

ROME (Reuters) - Italian police seized on Tuesday around 30 million liters of baby milk produced by Swiss food group Nestle after tests showed some of it had been contaminated, police said.

A police spokesman said tests showed the milk contained traces of a chemical substance used in the packaging, adding that it was not immediately clear whether it was toxic.

Traces of the same substance, IsopropilThioXantone (ITX), were found in about two million liters of Nestle baby milk seized in Italy earlier this month.

Nestle was not immediately available for comment on Tuesday, but in a statement issued on November 21, the company said ITX did not represent a health risk. It added that it would nonetheless withdraw all baby milk products that might have been affected.

Italian Forestry Police led Tuesday's operation, confiscating Latte Mio, Mio Cereali, Nidina 1 and Nidina 2 products which had a September 2006 expiry date.

"After 2 million liters of milk were seized on November 9, we are now seizing 30 million liters of product across all of Italy, not just from depots and supermarkets, but also from lorries," a police official said.

Nestle said on Nov 21. that ITX was used in the labeling of some TetraPak packaging. It said it had since decided to use a different printing mechanism for its baby milk products.

Nestle shares were down 0.5 percent at 1215 GMT in a slightly higher overall Swiss market.

Source: REUTERS

More News in this Category