Germany: Humana worker investigated for manslaughter

Public prosecutors in Germany announced Wednesday that an employee of Humana, the German manufacturers of the Remedia baby formula, is under investigation for manslaughter. The soy-based milk substitute has been linked to the deaths of at least two Israeli babies, and serious nerve damage some 15 other infants.

In Israel, police questioned the CEO of Remedia on Wednesday afternoon to try to prove suspicions that senior Remedia executives knew that Humana had removed the vitamin B-1 content from the soy-based milk substitute marketed by Remedia in Israel, Army Radio reported Wednesday.

This is the second time in two days that police have questioned Remedia CEO Gili Landsberger.

"There is a better-than-reasonable suspicion that senior officials of the Remedia company knew that the parent firm in Germany had removed vitamin B-1 from its vegetable-based formula," the radio quoted police as saying.

Remedia officials said Tuesday that the company was not responsible for the lack of the vitamin in the formula.

According to Remedia owner and chairman Moshe Miller and Ted Smith - vice president of Heinz, which has part ownership in Remedia - the company decided in March to make a "slight" change to the product, but in fat content, not in the B1 level. They said that the change did not require authorization from the Health Ministry.

But Health Ministry Director-General Dr. Boaz Lev, calling the change in B-1 a "crime" and a "deception," said Wednesday that Remedia had been obligated to report the changes in its formula. "All changes must be reported, especially when there is a substantive change in the product," he told Israel Radio.

Asked why the ministry had not discoved the changes on its own, Lev said, "No system in the world can uncover a deception... without knowing that a change has taken place. Even if our system, which is the strictest in the world, had used a million police and a million inspectors," it would not have detected it, he said, adding, "We are speaking here of a crime."

Asked if Remedia had deceived the ministry and the public, Lev said, "Certainly, Remedia and Humana have complete responsibility over the product they sell."

Miller and Smith, speaking at a Tuesday news conference, said the German company - either accidentally or due to neglect - made an additional change to the formula, which the Israeli company had not asked for and of which it was unaware.

"I have no words to express the intensity of pain and the sorrow for the hurt families. I hope that the families will allow me to visit them in order to give them explanations," Miller told reporters.

Remedia attorney Elieer Helfan said Wednesday, "We are not shirking responsibility" in pointing to Humana as the source of the defective product. But he said that Humana was bound by EU regulations to supply the required level of B1.

Earlier Tuesday, Humana acknowledged that the product was lacking B-1. The German company took full responsibility for the missing vitamin content and Humana's managing director, Albert Grosse Frie, said it was a result of "human error" during supervision of the production process.

The company thus reversed itself from statements it made Monday, when Humana claimed that independent checks had found Vitamin B1 in the product. A Humana spokesman at the company's manufacturing plant in Germany said Tuesday that the level of Vitamin B1 in the product shipped to Israel was 10 times less than the required level.

A laboratory test revealed the product contained between 29-37 micrograms of Vitamin B1 per 100 grams of product, while the label said the formula contained 385 micrograms of vitamin B-1.

The Chief Rabbinate on Tuesday afternoon rejected reports that its involvement led to changes in the make-up of the Remedia formula. The rabbinate's statement emphasized that the product's ingredients had always been kosher and that any changes to the product were made strictly by Humana.

On Monday, State Prosecutor Edna Arbel authorized police to launch a criminal investigation of Remedia.

The Health Ministry believes that some 5,000 children have consumed the product during the past six months.

Hmmm .... A German company making baby formula missing a critical vitamin for babies being shipped to Israel.

Wonder if they can compare previous B1 costs with recent costs to see if this was a "cost-saving" measure?

Bump!

2 posted on 11/12/2003 9:34:13 AM PST by Tunehead54 (Do not believe everything you read! Suspicious sources: NYT, WP, LAT. You have been warned.)

B1 is really, really cheap. That's why huge quantities of it are dumped in various junky processed foods so the packages can claim "fortified with vitamins!" Cheapo multi-vitamin pills have lots of it too. Most people get tons more of this stuff than they need; infants subsisting on nothing but one artificial formula are a really unique situation.

I think somebody just screwed up out of laziness/sloppiness. Possibly there was some kind of deliberate, targeted sabotage involved, but if so it would have to have been an individual acting, not the company.

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