Swiss authorities investigate baby milk recalls

USAV announces investigation into contaminated milk Keystone-SDA

The Swiss Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO) has opened an investigation into recalls of infant milk contaminated with cereulid toxin.

+ Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

FSVO deputy director Michael Beer told the Blick newspaper that “laboratory analyses are in progress” and that “the next step will be to reconstruct what has happened in recent weeks.”

If it emerges that companies reacted late or did not fulfil their due diligence obligations, fines could be imposed or criminal proceedings initiated.

Fifteen cases of symptoms attributable to consumption of the affected products have been reported in Switzerland. Progressive recalls of several batches were initiated in Switzerland – by Nestlé and Hochdorf – and in other European countries – such as by the French Vitagermine and Danone.

Danone itself is in the crosshairs of the Swiss Consumer Protection Foundation, which accuses the group of delays in recalling batches of the Aptamil brand. Beer said he shared “dissatisfaction” with the companies’ reaction.

“It is unacceptable that toxins can contaminate food without immediate action. If there is a potential health risk, a large-scale recall must be carried out without delay – better one recall more than one less,” he said.

He added that manufacturers must do everything possible to prevent contamination and control their suppliers more strictly.

Beer does not foresee further large scale recalls and urges calm: parents who currently buy baby milk “have no reason to worry”.

Adapted from Italian by AI/mga

How we work

We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.  

Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.

If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at [e-mail]