<\/p>\n Read more: Infant formula recall: Is trying to copy breastmilk increasing risk of contamination?
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What happened between January 2 and January 5? Why did the canton of Vaud wait three days before taking action?<\/p>\n
For its part, the FSVO states that it was informed by the cantonal authorities on January 5. It then published Nestl\u00e9\u2019s recall. Did the Swiss authorities fail? Unanswered questions remain.<\/p>\n
A self-regulation system<\/p>\n
The Swiss system is based on self-regulation. Manufacturers, importers and retailers must themselves ensure that their products are safe for health. However, the Swiss government checks product safety at the border. The cantons verify the safety of products within Switzerland by means of unannounced inspections.<\/p>\n
For a company that manufactures dairy products, the law requires an inspection at least every two years. When contacted, the authorities refuse to say how many times Nestl\u00e9 had been inspected recently. But according to information obtained by French-speaking public radio RTS, the group underwent four inspections last year in the canton of Vaud and one this year. Nestl\u00e9 has three production sites in the canton of Vaud.<\/p>\n
Cantonal chemists also carry out laboratory analyses of products. Not all foods are systematically checked. The cantons must set priorities based on risks to the population, products most likely to be non-compliant and the type of population likely to consume the foods in question. Children and elderly people are indeed more vulnerable.<\/p>\n
A laboratory in each canton<\/p>\n
In 2024, 46 analyses were carried out on powdered milk in Switzerland. No problems were detected at the time. Back then, chemists were not testing for cereulide, as there was no standard test in this regard. It was only in early February that the European Food Safety Authority determined threshold levels.<\/p>\n
In Switzerland, most cantons have their own laboratory, unlike certain other countries. This is a strength, says Geneva cantonal chemist Patrick Edder. \u201cWhen we have crises, we have the equipment and scientific expertise to be able to rapidly develop analysis methods. For these dairy products, we managed to develop the method in less than a month.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since the scandal broke, the canton of Geneva has analysed more than 60 samples of powdered milk. Six showed traces of cereulide, but at levels deemed very low, well below the toxicological assessments of the European Food Safety Authority.<\/p>\n
The canton of Vaud met with Nestl\u00e9 to ensure that appropriate measures have been taken.<\/p>\n
What is your opinion? Join the debate: <\/p>\n
Translated from French by AI\/cm\/ac<\/p>\n
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Learn more\u00a0here\u00a0<\/a>about how we work with AI.\u00a0<\/p>\n Articles in this story <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Were there any regulatory failures in the case of contaminated powdered milk? Keystone \/ Gian Ehrenzeller Several infant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[101,3931,5699,6336,114,5395,1002,3314,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-33604","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-switzerland","8":"tag-article","9":"tag-beat-best-of-srg-content","10":"tag-beat-food-safety","11":"tag-beat-food-supply-chains","12":"tag-business","13":"tag-dialogue","14":"tag-health","15":"tag-production-type-external","16":"tag-switzerland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116243528568997874","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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