Contaminated Nestle baby milk seized in Italy

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.

A police spokesman confirmed 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.

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, Reuters reports.

V.Y.