As contamination concerns and recalls reshape the infant formula landscape, organic baby and children’s food company Little Spoon launches formula with stricter testing, higher sourcing standards and full transparency.
For the last eight years, Little Spoon has focused on safety, quality and transparency rooted in US and EU standards – and its recent infant formula launch, Organic Grass-Fed Whole Milk Infant Formula, is no different.
Little Spoon’s infant formula contains dual-certified EU- and USDA -organic grass-fed whole milk from New Zealand.
“New Zealand has some of the most stringent dairy practices in the world, and so when it came to making our first infant formula, we really wanted to make sure we were sourcing the best milk possible,” explained Angela Vranich, co-founder and chief product officer, Little Spoon.
She notes that New Zealand cows graze on pasture for a minimum of 340 days a year compared to the US minimum of 120 days.
The formula contains other nutrients including prebiotic FOSS for digestive support and DHA and ARA for brain and eye development, she added.
Launching in a volatile market
The company entered the infant formula category during an era of recalls and litigations surrounding contamination, marking a critical need for food safety oversight from all stakeholders.
Within the last year several multinationals, including Nestle, Lactalis and Danone, recalled their infant formula across multiple global markets due to possible cereulide contamination – a toxin that causes nausea and vomiting. Late last year, US-based infant formula manufacturer By Heart pulled its Whole Nutrition Infant Formula cans and Anywhere Pack after it tested positive for Clostridium botulinum spores.
After the botulism outbreak linked to ByHeart, FDA issued warning letters in December to retailers that failed to remove the recalled product. The warning letters were an effort to improve how recalls are carried out for infant formula – aligning with FDA’s broader infant formula safety initiative Operation Stork Speed launched last year. The program’s goal is to modernize investigations by improving recall communications and updating valuations of nutrients and contaminants.
Batch-level transparency
Each batch of Little Spoon’s formula is independently tested for more than 500 toxins and contaminants, including heavy metals, pesticide residues and microbiological pathogens, in addition to defining thresholds for microbiological and chemical contaminants, according to the company.
“We’re going to test every single batch of our food and if it doesn’t meet the standards, we won’t sell the product, plain and simple,” said Ben Lewis, co-founder and CEO, Little Spoon.
The company takes an extra step in transparency with its Testing Hub feature where consumers can enter the lot code for most of its product line to look up the testing results that correspond with each batch, he added.
“Every single thing that we test for we’ve outlined specifically what our acceptable limits are,” which are shared with the public, including the frequency of the testing – which may seem impractical given the extra steps of transparency, he said.
But the more transparency brands provide, “I would imagine it will show the FDA, the rest of the industry that it is possible,” he said.
For example, parents may be unfamiliar with sulfite-reducing clostridia (SRC), but they do know about botulism. SRC is an indicator test for botulism, where SRC levels can be monitored to help reduce the risk of infant botulism.
The company sets its own limit of 10 CFU (colony-forming unit) per gram for SRC testing, which is 10 times stricter than the standard international guideline of 100 CFU per gram, according to Lewis.
Testing for SRC is not required by regulators, but Little Spoon chooses to do so voluntarily, he added.
