A Florida mom that purchased baby formula at a CVS says the contents of the container were switched out for what looks and smells like all-purpose flour.
Alison Denning just had her third baby and says she’s used formula many times before. She says when she went to the Oldsmar CVS to pick up a container of Enfamil baby formula the package looked fine, the protective seal was even intact on the lid.
But when she opened it up, she noticed something wasn’t right.
“The bag was in it like this, this particular sticker was not fully attached and when I opened it up this seal that wraps around was opened,” she said. “This smells like typical baking flour,” she added pointing to the container she says was tampered with.
She went to a different store and bout another container to compare the two.
She believes the first one was swapped out with all-purpose flour.
CVS offered her a refund, but instead, she called the manufacturer, Mead Johnson, about getting it tested. The company sent a shipping box overnight and picked it up Friday.
CVS says it plans on opening an investigation into the matter:
“The health and safety of our customers is our highest priority and we have robust quality assurance policies and procedures in place to ensure the quality and safety of the products we sell. We take our customer’s report of suspected tampering of Enfamil purchased at our Oldsmar store seriously. We will be contacting the supplier, and as a matter of precaution we have removed all Enfamil products from this store pending the outcome of our investigation.”
The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office made a report and will follow up with Denning and CVS.
This has been reported in other states around the country — a woman was even arrested in Tucson after she was found guilty of swapping baby formula with flour at stores in that area, including at two Walmart’s.
After ingesting the tampered formula, one baby got sick but is doing okay now, according to AP.
The FDA urges anyone with a food product issue to report it in its database. That way they can investigate.