mead johnson's brand and corporate image hurt by product recall

the nightmare every product manager wants to avoid just happened to two of mead johnson's milk products - a recall ordered by the FDA due to not meeting fat content standard, saying it is of "inferior" quality. 

in the first place, why did mead johnson release a product that does not meet government regulation standards? that is mind boggling and most specially for a company that sells milk products for babies and children. a milk product needs to be perfect specially on the points of view of safety and quality.  these are qualities every mother expects a milk product to be. the other benefits, like making your child smart or in the case of a product of mead johnson a promise of giving 100% nutrition are the added benefits that separate the brand from others.

fernandez, a corporate affairs manager at mead johnson gave a  weak defense of his company. he said the products they were selling met the FDA standards until the FDA changed them. that does not sound like it's a good excuse. the FDA changed the standards without telling milk companies of the change? is that what fernandez is saying?  



we are thinking if standards are changed, the FDA will let the milk companies know about the change ahead of time to give the milk companies time to develop new formulas and to deplete stocks that have already been produced and already in the stores. this change in standards does not appear to be a health risk, so it makes sense for the FDA to allow the milk companies to draw down their stocks. 


perhaps someone in mead johnson forgot the deadline for the switch over to the new stamdard? maybe there are still stocks of the mead johnson products still in the market that were sold before that got caught in the deadline and were found by the FDA in the shelves. we do not know the protocol the FDA follows in the their checks but it is very possible that the FDA would pick up products from the stores to analyze them. 



we think this forgetful mead johnson employee is the real reason for this problem. fernandez in his statement says they are about to release a re-formulated product that meets the regulation. that to us means someone in mead johnson is very forgetful with the reformulation coming in too late. 


this can mean the products in question will be out of the market for sometime as they will still need to reformulate, get approval on the new formula and produce the product.


this will hurt mead johnson's market share for these products. they are hoping this will not hurt the other mead johnson brands in the market. it's a tough situation to be in, mead johnson will need to do some damage repair on its brands and the company. this is not a good thing to happen for brands and a company that sells milk products to children. let's see what they do after this event.

FDA recalls 2 Mead Johnson milk products

By Jocelyn Uy
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 19:05:00 09/21/2010

MANILA, Philippines—The Food and Drug Administration has ordered the recall from store shelves of two milk products for supposedly deficient fat level content, failing to comply with the standards.
In an order, FDA Director Nazarita Tacandong said Sustagen Junior Milk Drink Powder Vanilla Flavor and Alactagrow Bibo Trio Milk Supplement were being recalled because both failed to comply with the standard fat level content per 100 calories set by the agency.

The two milk products are manufactured by Mead Johnson Nutrition Philippines.
Under FDA standards, the required fat content for milk supplements must be between three and six grams per 100 calories.

An evaluation showed that the fat contents of Sustagen and Alactagrow were only 1.5 grams and 1.34 grams per 100 calories, respectively, "thus indisputably making the same non-compliant to the standard of inferior quality," Tacandong said.

She also advised consumers who have purchased the products to return them to the manufacturer or any of its licensed distributors.

Continuous distribution of the milk products would present "gross deception" to consumers and may "present risk and injury to young children," said the FDA order.

Reached for comment, Janryll Fernandez, Mead Johnson Nutrition Philippines corporate affairs manager, maintained that all its products sold in the country, including Alactagrow and Sustagen Junior, have passed stringent FDA health and safety requirements.

"They remain perfectly safe to consume, contrary to the language used in the order," Fernandez told the Inquirer in a phone interview Tuesday.

Fernandez noted that the FDA issued a "Class III order," the lowest level or recall order used for products that have "technical compliance issues" but do not likely to cause adverse health consequences.

In a statement, Paul Richards, the company's president and general manager, said, "safety is Mead Johnson's highest priority and the company spares no effort to comply with the laws of all of the countries in which it operates."

Fernandez added that the fat content of the two milk products were in compliance with FDA standards before it recently adopted additional Codex regulations for follow-up milk formulas.
He added that the company was already taking steps to meet the new FDA

requirements.
"Mead Johnson is releasing a reformulated version of the milk products that meet the new regulatory requirements," said Fernandez.