Tampered baby formula restocked at Walmart against makers’ returns policy, formula maker says

Some bottles of baby formula sold at Toronto-area Walmart outlets that turned out to contain just water may have been restocked on store shelves after being returned by customers, Yahoo Canada News has learned.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) issued a notice late last week following three complaints involving stores in Brampton and Mississauga, stating that bottles of Enfamil A+ ready-to-feed infant formula were found to contain water and a little formula residue. The fact the tamper-proof seal had been broken and crudely replaced with blue tape seemed to rule out a production defect.

Walmart pulled the bottled formula from its shelves immediately but did not find any other cases of tampering, the agency said. However, it warned consumers to check the seals on any of the product they bought and if they suspected tampering, to throw it out or return it to the store.

Besides the agency's involvement, Peel Regional Police detectives were also investigating. Department spokesperson Constable Thomas Ruttan told Yahoo Canada News that it was still early in the investigation, as the incident occurred just last week.

However, Enfamil's maker, Mead Johnson Nutrition Canada, seems to be pointing the finger at the giant American retailer for not following the formula maker's guidelines when it comes to product returned by customers.

The manufacturer has a "liberal retail return policy" to help ensure product that leaves the store and then is brought back by customers is returned to Mead Johnson for full credit "and does not make its way back to the retail shelf for purchase," Canadian general manager Don Robb said in an email to Yahoo Canada News.

"The retailer indicated to us that customer returns were placed back on store shelves, but that they have taken steps to prevent future reoccurrences of this error," he said, adding the incidents involved three different Walmart stores.

Walmart Canada public relations manager Rosalyn Carneiro would not discuss details of the incident, opting instead to email a brief statement:

"At Walmart Canada, the safety of our customers is our top concern. Upon learning of this issue, we immediately removed the product in question from several of our stores in the Halton and Peel Regions, and began an internal investigation.

"We are co-operating fully with the CFIA as they proceed with their investigation."

Product tampering exploded into public consciousness in the 1980s because of two still-unsolved cases involving bottles of the painkiller Tylenol that had been laced with cyanide.

Seven people in the Chicago area died in 1982 after buying and taking the poisoned capsules and though a man was convicted of extortion in the case, the killer was never identified. Four years later, a New York woman died after taking cyanide-laced Tylenol, and no one was caught, CBC News reported.

The incidents led drug companies and other consumer-goods makers to introduce tamper-resistent packaging on everything from painkillers to ketchup.

Robb said Mead Johnson uses several different measures, including packaging its formula bottles in heavily glued cartons and double-sealing the bottles themselves using an outer heat-shrunk plastic wrap and a foil seal under the lid.

The prospect of product contamination is probably a sensitive issue for Mead Johnson. In 2011, Walmart pulled a batch of Enfamil powdered formula off the shelves when one baby in Missouri died and another was sickened after being fed the product.

The infant tested positive for a micro-organism called Cronobacter, Mead Johnson told Bloomberg News at the time.

The Enfamil batch tested negative for the bacteria at the time it was made and packaged, leading to the possibility the naturally occurring bug may have been in the water used to make the formula.

Stores are frequently victimized by scams involving returned products, often using shoplifted items and receipts tossed away by customers.

Curtis Baillie, an American security consultant and retail loss-prevention expert, said tampering can originate from different motives, including extortion or revenge.

There may have been no attempt to do harm in the formula-tampering incidents but someone went to a lot of trouble just to cover up a theft.

“That takes a lot of time to remove the label, unscrew the cap, they’d have to put water in it somehow and kind of smooth out the original label and put tape around it, blue tape," he said in an interview. "That’s pretty obvious and that would take some time.”

Baby formula is one of the most popular items targeted by shoplifters because it's easy to resell at flea markets and there's always a demand, said Baillie.

"It's very high on the list of organized retail crime," he said, though he's never heard of this kind of return scam involving refilled bottles.

Baillie was puzzled by the fact the Walmart outlets were ignoring Mead Johnson's returns policy when they wouldn't be losing any money by sending it back.

"I'm sure Walmart corporate will be visiting those stores to review that policy," he chuckled.

Retailers sometimes don't check returned goods to ensure seals are unbroken before restocking it, Baillie said.

“There’s no law that says that they have to examine something before they put it back on the shelf," he said. "Common sense should tell you they should do that.”

Consumers, though, are the final inspectors. We buy a lot of products trusting that they're safe. But almost everything, from carefully sealed goods such as infant formula to fresh meat and fruit is vulnerable to tampering, said Baillie.

One of the first big cases he worked on more than two decades ago involved a telephone threat that fresh turkeys sold by a Tucson, Ariz., supermarket chain had been injected the cyanide. The recall cost the retailer millions and the culprit was never found.

"I don’t think [you should] be paranoid; just be careful with what you buy," he said. "It’s not always easy to examine a product but we should be careful.”

As for catching the apparent baby formula scammer, a lot will depend on whether store security video is available to pinpoint the return transaction. Walmart stores are covered with cameras, said Baillie, but recordings typically are kept only for seven days.