Pediasure IMMITATION?

The one core and serious concern among parents in mainland China is milk powder. The recent contamination detected by Fonterra, one of the largest exporters of raw materials to many manufacturers of dairy products in the world only deepened the concern and sent many parents here frantically searching for an alternative.

We have the same problems here and it was one of our major concerns before we even finalised our move and relocation over to Beijing. After our initial market survey and from the advice and `stories’ we heard, we were determined to bring in our milk powder for both Ryan and Chenya from Malaysia every time we go back for our holidays. We have been buying Pediasure by the cartons when we are back home and bring them over in our suitcases.

With the volume that we are stocking up, we noticed that there is a mark difference in the Pediasure milk powder that we have been buying. From the stock that we have, we discovered that they are actually manufactured by two different companies. One is reportedly manufactured by Abbott Manufacturing Singapore Private Limited, a subsidiary of Abbott Laboratories North Chicago. The other is labelled as manufactured by Holland Beilen Factory FOR Abbott Laboratories North Chicago. Both are labelled as imported and distributed by Abbott Laboratories (M) Sdn Bhd.

We have noticed the different texture of the milk powder from the different batches of Pediasure that we have bought before but never really took any serious notice or attention till now.

From the packaging perspective, although they looked almost similar, we noticed the following differences:-

• The colour of the can is different. The one manufactured in Singapore has brighter colours as compared to the one manufactured in Netherlands.
• The Halal logo is different between the two
• The scope that came with the one manufactured in Netherlands is longer than that the came with the one manufactured in Singapore.

Besides the packaging, the one important difference that we noticed was the texture of the milk powder itself.

The one manufactured in Singapore is more fluffy, compact and `sticky’. The colour too is more yellowish. The one manufactured in Netherlands however, is clearly dryer and looser.

We have fed our children with both and so far, we have not detected any significant problems with both (although I have read in a blog in Singapore updated by another concerned mother that her child had diarrhoea after consuming that manufactured in Netherlands.)

We have yet to write to Abbot in Malaysia to check it out and we are determined to. Apparently, the mother who detected this in Singapore was told that the one manufactured in Netherlands could be parallel imports which Abbott could not control. However, the scary thing is that checks from the internet could not find any company by the name of HOLLAND BEILEN FACTORY!

We just hope that we have not bought another brilliant imitation manufactured somewhere and the thoughts of feeding that to our children is scary. For now, I think I would only feed my two little ones with those manufactured in Singapore until we can get some form of satisfactory answer from either Abbott Malaysia or Abbott in Chicago.