The death of one baby, 10-day-old Avery Cornett in Missouri on Dec. 18, is what prompted chains including Wal-Mart Stores Inc, Walgreen Co. and Kroger to pull some cans of Enfamil Newborn from shelves in an effort to protect consumers from Cronobacter, which can cause severe illness in newborns and has been found in powdered milk-based baby formula.
The death of a second baby, in Florida, was not known until an update from the US Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention late on Friday following the testing of samples taken from the infected babies’ homes and company facilities.
“Parents may continue to use powdered infant formula, following the manufacturer’s directions on the printed label,” the agencies said in a joint statement.
Two other babies, one in Illinois and one in Oklahoma, were also reported with infections in recent weeks, but they both recovered.
The agencies said they found Cronobacter in an open container of infant formula, an open bottle of nursery water and prepared infant formula.
They said it was unclear how the contamination occurred, which suggests that it could have happened after the packages were opened. The agencies also said there was no evidence indicating that the infections were related.
“There is currently no evidence to conclude that the infant formula or nursery water was contaminated during manufacturing or shipping,” said an FDA spokesman.
These findings basically clear Mead Johnson, whose shares have fallen 10 percent since the issue surfaced, said personal injury and product liability lawyer William Marler of the firm Marler Clark.
“It would be difficult to prove that this formula caused this child’s death,” said Marler, who has years of experience handling foodborne illness cases, including one in 2009 against Mead Johnson involving Cronobacter. That case was dismissed after no sealed cans tested positive, robbing the prosecution of the proverbial “smoking gun.”
Officials for the CDC, Mead Johnson and Walmart could not immediately be reached for comment.
Mead Johnson’s name may be cleared, but its reputation will likely take time to heal.
“Bad news is bad news,” said Robert Passikoff, president of research firm Brand Keys Inc. He said the negative publicity has already damaged Enfamil’s brand equity and could have cost the company one cycle of new parents, who might feed their children formula for about a year.
Goldman Sachs lowered its earnings estimates for Mead Johnson last week for 2012 through 2014 by 3 percent on average, citing the risk of damage to consumers’ trust in the Enfamil brand. It lowered its price target to $74 from $80.
Enfamil is the leading milk-based formula in the United States, controlling nearly 44 percent of the $4.29 billion market, according to Euromonitor International. No. 2 is Abbott Laboratories Inc’s Similac, with a 24-percent share, followed by Nestle’s Good Start with 10 percent and private label, or store brands, with 9 percent.
