A case of botulism in an infant in Britain has caused SMA Nutrition to recall batches of its SMA Gold and SMA White baby-food brands manufactured in Limerick.
"Any parent who has a can of either SMA Gold or SMA White should check the base of the can for the `best before' date," Dr Patrick Wall, chief executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, warned yesterday. If it showed October 28th or November 28th, 2001, parents should not use the formula, but should contact SMA Nutrition at 1800 409 446 or the FSAI advice line at 1800 33 66 77.
The SMA action was a "precautionary measure in the best interests of public health", he emphasised, after one batch of SMA Gold from the Limerick plant was linked to a case of botulism in a baby in Britain. The infant has made a full recovery.
"These batches were manufactured in 1998, and it is most likely that very little product, if any, is still on the market now," said Dr Wall. The "causal germ", clostridium botulinum, occurred naturally in the environment. Infant botulinum was extremely rare and occurred mainly in infants under six months.
It was not a major issue, the FSAI chief executive emphasised, and parents should not be panicked into switching from infant formulae to foods that might not be suitable for their babies. Only six cases of the disease had been recorded in Britain in the last 25 years.
The infected baby food came from a batch of 122,000 tins of SMA Gold exported to the UK. In line with best practice laid down by its US parent, said Dr Wall, the Irish company decided to withdraw all product manufactured around the same time.