Mead Johnson Nutrition says it has tested additional samples of its Enfamil baby formula and still does not find the bacteria responsible for the death of one newborn infant and the illness of another.
The retailers actions were unusually cautious. Neither Mead Johnson nor federal investigators had evidence that the formula caused the illnesses. Federal agencies had not asked for a recall.
But the retailers must have connected the dots:
The most likely source of C. sakazakii is powdered infant formula.
The two infants ill with C. sakazakii were fed Enfamil powdered formula (although the second ill infant drank several kinds of formulas).
In the chapter on infant feeding in my book, What to Eat, I noted that the main difference between one kind of infant formula and another is its cost. Powdered formula is much cheaper than the already reconstituted kinds. I asked:
Beyond the difference in cost, does it matter which level of convenience you choose?
It might. Powdered formulas are not sterile. In this, they differ from concentrate and ready-to-serve formulas, which have been heated to sterilize them.
In 2002, the FDA warned pediatricians that powdered milk formulas could be contaminated with Enterobacter sakazakii, a type of bacteria that causes rare but terrible and sometimes fatal infections in infants, especially those who are premature, weak, or in hospitals.
The FDA says it is not aware of any E. sakazakii infections in healthy full-term infants in home settings.
Reports from other countries, however, suggest that even healthy babies may sometimes acquire such infections [see Kwan Kew Lai, “Enterobacter sakazakii infections among neonates, infants, children, and adults: case reports and a review of the literatur,”(see: Medicine, Vol. 80, pp. 113-122, March 2001.]
In 2001, the CDC published a case report on this type of infection. It pointed out that “…in 50-80 % of cases, powdered infant formula is both the vehicle and the source (direct or indirect) of E. sakazakii-induced illness.”
The CDC’s conclusion:
Clinicians should be aware of the potential risk for infection from use of nonsterile enteral formula in the neonatal health-care setting.
3. How does infant formula get contaminated with Enterobacter sakazakii? Can other foods also be contaminated?
Basically there are three routes by which Enterobacter sakazakii can enter infant formula:
a) through the raw material used for producing the formula;
b) through contamination of the formula or other dry ingredients after pasteurization; and
c) through contamination of the formula as it is being reconstituted by the caregiver just prior to
feeding.
Enterobacter sakazakii has been detected in other types of food, but only powdered infant formula has been linked to outbreaks of disease.
So the recalls were precautionary. It’s hard to argue with that—unless you are a stockholder; Mead Johnson stocks declined by 5% as a result.
At the moment, the source of these particular C. sakazakii infections is unknown. Let’s give the retailers credit for taking precautions to protect the public.
As for infant feeding in general: Breastfeeding is best, of course. If you are using formulas to feed your infant, the liquid ones are safer—but much more expensive.
Apparently, she has given up on encouraging food companies to make healthier products and stop marketing junk foods to kids.
This shift is troubling. Here’s why:
1. The shift is based on faulty biology.
To lose weight, most people have to eat less whether or not they move more. For example, it takes about three miles of walking to compensate for the calories in one 20-ounce soda.
Activity is important for health, but to lose or maintain weight, kids also need to eat less. Sometimes they need to eat much less. And discouraging them from drinking sugary sodas is a good first step in controlling body weight.
But eating and drinking less are very bad for business. Food companies do all they can to oppose this advice.
2. It undercuts healthy eating messages.
On the one hand, Mrs. Obama says that she disagrees with this assumption: “kids don’t like healthy food, so why should we bother trying to feed it to them.”
But her speech implies that kids won’t eat healthfully unless forced to:
I want to emphasize that last point — the importance of really promoting physical activity to our kids…This isn’t forcing them to eat their vegetables. (Laughter.) It’s getting them to go out there and have fun.
3. It declares victory, prematurely.
Mrs. Obama says:
Major food manufacturers are cutting sugar, salt and fat from their products. Restaurants are revamping kids’ menus and loading them with healthier, fresher options. Companies like Walgreens, SuperValu, Walmart, Calhoun’s Grocery are committing to build new stores and to sell fresh food in underserved communities all across this country.
Congress passed historic legislation to provide more nutritious school meals to millions of American children. Our schools are growing gardens all over the place. Cities and towns are opening farmers markets. Congregations are holding summer nutrition programs for their kids. Parents are reading those food labels, and they’re rethinking the meals and the snacks that they serve their kids.
So while we still have a long way to go, we have seen so much good progress. We’ve begun to have an impact on how, and what, our kids are eating every single day. And that is so important. It’s so important.
Really? I’d say we’ve seen promises from food companies but remarkably little action.
Mrs. Obama’s speech fails to mention what I’m guessing is the real reason for the shift: “Move more” is not politically loaded. “Eat less” is.
Everyone loves to promote physical activity. Trying to get the food industry to budge on product formulations and marketing to kids is an uphill battle that confronts intense, highly paid lobbying.
You don’t believe this? Consider recent examples of food industry opposition to anti-obesity efforts:
Soda companies successfully defeated efforts to impose taxes on soft drinks.
Food companies successfully defeated efforts by four federal agencies to set voluntary standards for marketing foods to children.
Food companies successfully lobbied Congress to pass a law forbidding the USDA from setting standards for school meals regarding potatoes, tomato sauce, and whole grains. The result? Pizza tomato sauce now counts as a vegetable serving.
McDonald’s and Burger King evaded San Francisco’s new rules restricting toys with kids meals by selling the toys separately for ten cents each.
The political cost of fighting the food industry is surely the reason for the change in Mrs. Obama’s rhetoric. Now, she agrees that kids won’t eat vegetables unless forced to.
But in March 2010 Mrs. Obama warned Grocery Manufacturers Association:
We need you…to entirely rethink the products that you’re offering…, the information that you provide about these products, and how you market those products to our children….This isn’t about finding creative ways to market products as healthy.
The food industry understood those as fighting words. It fought back with weapons at its disposal, one of which is to deflect attention from food by focusing on physical activity. It now has White House endorsement of this deflection.
I’m all for promoting physical activity but the refocusing is a loss, not a win, in the fight against childhood obesity.
Michelle Obama, who has made elimination of “food deserts” a cornerstone of her campaign to end childhood obesity, announced this week that several supermarket and drug store chains—Walmart, SuperValue, and Walgreens among them—have committed to finding ways to put healthier foods into low-income areas.
This week, the Food Marketing Institute released “Access to Healthier Foods: Challenges and Opportunities for Retailers in Underserved Areas.” The report summarizes the risks and benefits of locating grocery stores, describes how to get local governments to provide incentives, and gives some examples of success stories.
Mrs. Obama’s event was thoroughly covered by ObamaFoodorama, which notes that recent research suggests only minimal benefits from putting grocery stores into low-income areas and observes that it’s going to take a lot more than just better access to encourage people in underserved areas to eat more healthfully.
Some advocates worry that the access issue is being used as an excuse for large retail corporations to get a foothold in inner cities than it is for residents to have better food choice, and that an influx of big chains will put small grocers out of business.
Maybe, but I’m guessing that people who live in areas without decent grocery stores will be more than delighted to have them nearby, especially if the stores keep their promises to provide fresh produce.
Just for the record, the research on food deserts (or swamps as some prefer) makes it clear why this is an important issue:
So many readers have sent me the link to the Chicago Tribune story about efforts of packaged food producers to make their products look healthy that I thought I had best say something about it.
The article lists the large number of companies that are “healthifying” their products:
PepsiCo: Combining Tropicana, Quaker Oats and dairy; low-sodium salt.
Walmart: Cutting trans fat and sodium in its Great Value products; encouraging major brands to make healthier products.
Kraft: Adding fruit to Lunchables and more whole grain to Wheat Thins.
Nestlé (no relation): Making small changes so consumers won’t feel deprived.
Campbell’s: Trying to reduce sodium in soup, promoting liquid vegetables through its V8 brand and whole grains with Pepperidge Farm.
Starbucks: Offering sweets with 200 or fewer calories.
And Pepsi, says the Wall Street Journal, is converting most of its products—but not Doritos or Cheetos—to all-natural ingredients. Doritos and Cheetos, in case you wondered, are:
harder to retool and are marketed to teens and other consumers who might be turned off if told the chips were all natural. As well, going all natural risks highlighting the artificial ingredients that were in the chips before.
What’s going on here? Processed food makers must be in trouble. “Healthy” and “natural” are the only things selling these days.
But isn’t a “healthy” processed snack food an oxymoron? They can tweak and tweak the contents, but these products will still be heavily processed.
Too much evidence now concludes that marketing a product as “healthy” or “natural” makes people think it has no calories.
And as I keep saying, just because a processed food is a little bit less bad than it used to be, doesn’t necessarily make it a good choice.
What was I doing there? Colbert used a clip from an ABC News interview from January 20. I was away from NYU that day and taped the interview in a studio at Cornell University.
I’m writing this while on an Alaskan Seafood Marketing Institute press trip (see note at end). We are at Sand Point, Popof Island, Shumagin Islands, Alaska, about halfway out the mainland part of the Aleutian archipelago. Sand Point is the largest town around, population 800 to 1000.
The town has a grocery store, coffee shop, bar, cafe, and a Chinese restaurant (the Aleut China), but centers around a seafood processing plant run by Seattle-based Trident Seafoods.
The fish arrive at the plant from “tenders,” fishing boats that collect fish caught by other boats, weigh the fish, and store them in ice cold sea water until they reach the plant.
Workers at the plant eviscerate the fish, clean them, and cut them into clean fillets. These will go to Costco and Sams’ Clubs (Walmart) in the lower 48.
Trimming Halibut, Trident plant, Sand Point, AK, 6-18-10
The men and women doing this work are mostly seasonal workers from the Philippines. They work 12 to 16 hour days, 6 or 7 days a week.
Several people who have lived here all their lives told us that when they were kids, they could hardly wait until they were 16 so they could work in the cannery. They made good money.
When Trident came in, the company lowered the wages to minimum or just above, discouraged locals from working there, and outsourced the labor.
The company also reduced the price it paid for fish from just over $2 per pound in the late 1980s to today’s just over $1.
If I remember correctly, wild Alaskan salmon costs nearly $30 per pound in New York City grocery stores.
The fishermen aren’t getting much of that. The people who work in the processing plant aren’t either.
We met people here who are trying to help the fishers get more money for their work. We haven’t met anyone lobbying for higher wages for workers in the processing plant.
The rationale? Fish come in seasonally when they can be caught. They have to be processed as soon as they come in. If the workers were paid more, the wild fish would be so expensive that nobody could afford to buy them (and everyone would turn to farmed salmon).
I will be thinking about all this the next time I’m in a Costco or read about recommendations in the dietary guidelines to eat more fish.
I needed five chapters to talk about issues related to fish in What to Eat. I will have more to say about Alaskan fish politics in the next two posts. Stay tuned.
Note: the Alaskan Seafood Marketing Institute is a trade association paid for by seafood processors::
The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) was created over twenty years ago as a cooperative partnership between the Alaska seafood industry and state government to advance the mutually beneficial goal of a stable seafood industry in Alaska. It is Alaska’s “official seafood marketing agency”, and is established under state law as a public corporation…[It] is divided into three distinct marketing programs: international, foodservice and retail. All three programs are designed to enhance the appeal and popularity of Alaska Seafood. The international program operates in the European Union, China, and Japan, while the retail and foodservice programs conduct their activities in the U.S.
I greatly admire the work of Jared Diamond. His book,Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies, is as clear an explanation as you will ever get of how the inequitable distribution of favorable geography, climate, and natural resources affects the development and maintenance of human societies.
But here he is, incredibly, in the Sunday New York Times writing a fan letter to corporate social responsibility for protecting those favorable environments. He writes:
There is a widespread view, particularly among environmentalists and liberals, that big businesses are environmentally destructive, greedy, evil and driven by short-term profits. I know — because I used to share that view. But today I have more nuanced feelings…I’ve discovered that while some businesses are indeed as destructive as many suspect, others are among the world’s strongest positive forces for environmental sustainability.
And which corporations does he include as “strongest positive forces?” Chevron, Walmart, and Coca-Cola. I’ll leave discussion of Chevron and Walmart to others, but Coca-Cola?
Coca-Cola, Diamond says, is protecting the world’s water supplies. The company needs clean water in the 200 countries in which it operates. This, says Diamond:
compels it to be deeply concerned with problems of water scarcity, energy, climate change and agriculture. One company goal is to make its plants water-neutral, returning to the environment water in quantities equal to the amount used in beverages and their production. Another goal is to work on the conservation of seven of the world’s river basins, including the Rio Grande, Yangtze, Mekong and Danube — all of them sites of major environmental concerns besides supplying water for Coca-Cola. These long-term goals are in addition to Coca-Cola’s short-term cost-saving environmental practices, like recycling plastic bottles, replacing petroleum-based plastic in bottles with organic material, reducing energy consumption and increasing sales volume while decreasing water use.
Please note the future tense. These are things Coke says it plans to do. As for what the company is doing now, Diamond does not say. His piece does not mention Coke’s negotiating with officials in developing countries to buy water at rates significantly below those charged to local communities, a topic under much discussion when I was in India last year. It does not mention campaigns in India to hold Coke accountable for its abuse of local water rights or any of the similar campaigns in other countries.
Diamond’s piece does not talk about the efforts Coke puts into selling bottled water at the expense of local water supplies. As described by Elizabeth Royte in her book, Bottlemania, companies like Coke exhibit every one of of the characteristics formerly deplored by Diamond in attempting to secure plentiful and reliable sources of cheap local water: in his words, “environmentally destructive, greedy, evil and driven by short-term profits.”
Diamond says he sits along side and has gotten to know and appreciate the motives of many corporate executives. Me too. Personally, many of them mean well and wish that they could do more to be socially responsible. But they work for businesses that are required, by law, to make short-term profit their reason for existence. This means that corporate social responsibility is necessarily limited to actions that bring visible – and immediate – returns on investment.
We need some critical thinking here. If Diamond gave any thought at all to what Coca-Cola produces – bottled water and sodas – he would surely have to agree that less of both would be good for our own health and that of the planet.
This page is somewhat disorganized in that I now put occasional print, audio, and video interviews, which used to be separated, together by year. The section at the very end is called Controversies; it is where I post letters from critics. Scroll down to find whatever you are looking for. Media interviews and reviews for specific books are on the page tabs for that book. For old podcasts and videos of presentations, look under Appearances and scroll down for Past Appearances; in recent years, I’ve been putting them in the chronological list here.
Interviews, media appearances, and lectures (the ones for which I have links)
Nov 28 This video about sugar in soft drinks was just posted on Twitter (X) but its YouTube listing says 7 years ago, when I was on a Fulbright in Mexico in 2017.
Jan 17 Podcast interview with Kathlyn Carney, Connecting the Dots. Lisen on Spotify or Apple Podcast
Jan 16 LA Times guide to Japanese subscription snack boxes (Video Part I). Part II is Jan 23 (same clip?)
Jan 14 The Franklin Institute’s Ben Franklin Birthday celebration. My talk comes first. Others are from Eric Oberhalter and honoree Wendell Berry. Use passcode $H81iALu
Jan 15 Two short answers to questions at FAO’s Regional Office in Santiago, Chile. Video 1: on what governments can do about childhood obesity. Video 2: on food choices in an unhealthy food environment.
July 5 Goldberg R. Food Citizenship: Food System Advocates in an Era of Distrust. Oxford University Press. Chapter 1. Health and Nutrition: Interview with Marion Nestle:1-13. Video online
July Carter J. Interview with Marion Nestle. In: Food for Thought: Feeding the People, Protecting the Planet. Aspenia [Aspen Institute Italia] 2015;67:101-105.
July Carter J. Intervista a Marion Nestle. Come cambiano le politiche alimentary. In: Fame Zero: Rinascimento agricolo. Aspenia [Revista di Aspen Institute Italia] 2015;69:198-202.
January 10 Video interview on Star Talk, co-hosts Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Eugene Mirman, with Anthony Bourdain, about the science of cooking (sort of).
May 21 Print interview with Revital Federbush for an Israeli women’s magazine, mostly about dairy foods I’m told (it’s in Hebrew, which I cannot read, alas).
November 19 Interview with Al Jazeera for a Fault Line program on “Fast food, fat profits: obesity in America (my 10 seconds starts at about minute 15).
September 16 Speech at Columbia University conference on Global Food Systems: Their Impact on Nutrition and Health for All on panel on Advanced Technologies, Food Safety and the Role of Local and Organic Food Production (video)
November 12 Panel discussion on the farm bill, Wagner School of Public Service, Puck Building (Lafayette at Houston), 2nd floor. Here is Wild Green Yonder’s take on it.
February 6, 2008 Biologique Foods radio, two podcast interviews with TJ Harrington in Bloomington, MN, one on food politics and the other on what’s in your food.
Interview with Laura Flinders (and Arun Gupta and Peter Hoffman), Grit TV. It’s on how to eat well without going broke, and starts with a Monty Python clip on Spam 11/26/08
September 5, 2007 Scientific American Podcast with Steve Mirsky. Because I am a Paulette Goddard professor at NYU, he sends along an article he wrote about Einstein’s experience with the gorgeous movie star.
NPR Science Friday, panel on the farm bill with Michael Pollan and Sandor Ellix Katz 8/10/07
Are you responsible for your own weight? Balko R. Pro: Absolutely. Government has no business interfering with what you eat. Brownell K, Nestle M. Con: Not if Blaming the Victim Is Just an Excuse to Let Industry off the Hook. Time June 7, 2004:113.
