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 The company, known globally for its ketchup and baked beans, made
the annoucement as it sought to contain the potential damage to its
reputation in a country where consumers are highly sensitive to food
safety after a series of high-profile scares.
Heinz told Reuters on Monday that it had recalled four batches of
its AD Calcium Hi-Protein Cereal for infants after a food watchdog
in eastern China found levels of the toxic heavy metal above
regulation standards.
Supply chains issues in China have come under increased scrutiny,
with KFC-parent Yum Brands Inc, Wal-Mart Stores Inc and McDonald's
Corp all recently facing food safety issues with suppliers.
Consumers in China are especially sensitive to baby products after
powdered milk tainted with the industrial chemical melamine led to
the deaths of at least six infants in 2008.
"I would think that Heinz is in a lot of trouble right now because
parents are unforgiving of any quality control problems in baby and
infant food products," said Shaun Rein, Shanghai-based managing
director of China Market Research Group.
Heinz will draft stricter systems for regulating ingredient
suppliers and improve traceability and food safety control measures
along its supply chain, the U.S. company said in a post on its
official Sina Weibo microblog on Tuesday.
Affected products had been sealed and would would be destroyed under
regulator guidance, it added.
An official at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in Zhejiang
province declined to give details on the levels of lead in the Heinz
cereal, but said that it would release further information about the
case in the coming days.
Standard levels for infant products should be below 0.2 milligrams
per kg, according to a 2010 government report.
Heinz, which was bought out by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway
Inc and private equity firm 3G Capital last year, said the recall
was a precautionary measure.
The company added that the high lead level was caused "accidentally"
by a supplier who had provided a skimmed soybean powder ingredient
used in the batch of cereal.
"This relates to an isolated regional withdrawal in eastern China,"
company spokesman Michael Mullen said in emailed comments to
Reuters. "Extensive testing confirmed that no other Heinz baby food
varieties are affected."
Heinz did not respond to phone and email requests for further
comment on Tuesday.
SOIL CONTAMINATION
The Zhejiang FDA has said the problem affected 1,472 boxes of cereal
in the province and that Heinz had told the agency it would destroy
another 153 boxes that are sealed in a warehouse in the southern
city of Guangzhou.
Heinz said in its Weibo statement that it would compensate any
consumers who had bought the affected product. The cereal is aimed
at infants aged between six months and three years, according to the
packaging.
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It also apologised for inconvenience caused to consumers and moved
to assure shoppers that the firm was committed to food quality and
safety.
Foreign brands do well in China's baby food market, because parents
are willing to pay a premium to guarantee quality and safety. The
market, excluding infant milk formula, is worth around 8 billion
yuan ($1.3 billion), according to a May report from Huidian
Research.
However, food safety scares are relatively common in China with Yum,
retailer Wal-Mart and French dairy Danone SA all taking a hit in the
last year over food safety concerns.
Chinese parents are already highly sensitive to metal contamination
in food, which is often linked to the country's high levels of soil
and water pollution, one of the main ways metals gets into cereals
and other crops.
Analysts said the presence of lead - widely known by parents to be
harmful for children - would create a "scare factor" even if no
people suffered adverse effects from the products. China has
previously had issues of cadmium and lead metals in food.
Consumers took to China's Twitter-like microblog Weibo on Tuesday,
questioning whether the recall was just the beginning of the issue,
while others said they were concerned about long-term effects on
their children.
Experts say exposure to lead is particularly dangerous for children,
inhibiting intellectual and physical development. It can cause poor
concentration, disruptive behaviour and even death when subjected to
high levels.
A soil survey in April showed that nearly a fifth of China's
farmland was contaminated by toxic heavy metals and chemicals, and
that more than 33,000 sq km (12,740 sq miles) – an area the size of
Belgium - were unfit for agricultural use.
(1 US dollar = 6.1360 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting by Sui-Lee Wee and Adam Jourdan; additional reporting by
David Stanway; Editing by David Goodman and Alex Richardson)
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