A leading brand of baby formula has been forced to recall an entire batch of product in a shocking food safety blunder, after a mother in Sydney found a dead lizard within one of the tins.
Artilina Castanares was left in disgusted shock on July the 11th, after she noticed a strange scent coming from her baby formula.
The discovery of the lizard came about when she noticed the lizard’s tail sticking out of a tin of S-26 original process formula. Thinking it was some kind of thick thread, Castanares picked the offending object up to find that it was actually a dead gecko that had been trapped within the tin.
After an understandable moment of panic, the mother of two immediately set about calling the care-line number provided on the product to inform the company of the dead lizard inside of their milk.
A spokesperson for the company told Castanares to take the tin and the gecko to the head office in Aspen, Australia, where her case would be thoroughly investigated.
The Initial Reaction
According to Castanares, although she was told the incident was going to be properly investigated, she was also informed that the process could take anywhere up to two months. The spokesperson for the company was reportedly quite “casual” about the whole issue, which left Castanares feeling outraged on behalf of mothers everywhere whose babies could be at risk from contaminated formula.
After determining that the company’s behaviour was ‘unacceptable’, the mother from Sydney announced to the media that the highest safety measures should be taken when it comes to children, and requested that the milk company recall the product, or at the very least, that particular batch.
After posting photos of the milk product onto a Facebook page dedicated to mothers in Sydney, Mrs Castanares said that many parents were concerned about the product, going as far as to send her private messages and emails detailing their distress.
The Decision to Recall the Product
Not long after the incident, Aspen Nutritionals agreed to perform a voluntary recall of all formula within that particular batch, commenting that they were particularly concerned about the discovery of a dead lizard within a tin of their formula.
Although they reassure customers that no other batches have been affected, they are withdrawing number ‘40727482A2’ pending the results of an investigation.
Despite this, however, many parents have commented that the incident has left them completely turned off the idea of S-26 Original Process formula, with Castanares stating that would never buy it again.
