Melamine Found In US Formula

Heather at A Mama’s Blog shed some light last week on Melamine being found in infant formula here in the United States. After reading her original post on the subject, I e-mailed Abbott Laboratories, the makers of Similac, asking them how they are ensuring melamine is not entering formula Aubrey is now drinking. Well, simply put, the response I got back was purely a “PR letter”
Hello Jenna,

Thank you for contacting Abbott Nutrition.

Abbott infant formulas are completely safe and we stand behind them.

Melamine is not an ingredient or additive in our formula.

The type of melamine found in trace amounts in infant formula is approved for food contact and is used in all sorts of food packaging including some infant formula containers. These trace amounts of melamine have not been shown to cause health problems.

By contrast, the tainted milk in China that caused children to become sick was due to intentional adulteration. That is, unscrupulous farmers and milk producers deliberately contaminated their milk with melamine in order to cheat on quality tests. That situation is entirely different from what we have found in the United States. The Chinese milk that made babies sick contained up to 10,000 times the amount of melamine that has been found here in the US.

Out of an abundance of caution, we confirmed that no milk or milk proteins that we use come from China. For extra safety precautions,Abbott Nutrition conducted extensive testing of all our ingredients toconfirm no presence of melamine in the ingredients used to make ourinfant formulas. There was no melamine detected in our powdered orliquid formulas over the standard 1 part per million.

Dr. Stephen Sundlof, director of FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition stated “[moms] should not be changing the diet. If they’ve been feeding a particular product, they should continue to feed that product. That’s in the best interest of the baby.”

We are committed to meeting and exceeding your expectations for theformula that helps your child grow strong and healthy.

Kind regards,
Consumer Relations
Abbott Nutrition

You can read more about Heather’s updated post including the response I received back and the levels of melamine being found in infant formulas here.