Milupa offers milk refund

The French manufacturers of the baby milk powder linked to a British outbreak of salmonella have offered a full refund to their customers.

Yesterday a spokeswoman for Milupa, which produces the implicated Milumil formula, said the company will pay out pounds 3.74 for 450g packs and pounds 6.58 for 900g packs to thousands of worried parents.

"There will be a full refund. We are suggesting they take packs back to where they bought them and their money will be returned," she said.

"We are advising parents to stop using the product and switch to another brand of powdered milk. If they are very concerned they should contact their doctor or health adviser."

All packs of the brand were withdrawn when 12 children, almost all under the age of six months, were struck with food poisoning.

No definite connection between the product and the outbreak has been identified, but scientists at the Public Health Laboratory Service discovered that at least ten of the affected babies had been fed on the suspect formula.

The babies, from Scotland, Yorkshire, the Midlands and the South-east, all suffered from the rare salmonella anatum infection. This form of food poisoning usually occurs in adults, with only about 50 cases a year.

The babies have all since recovered and Public Health Laboratory researchers have stressed that this strain of salmonella is not one of the most dangerous.

A special advice line set up by Milupa on Friday afternoon in order to reassure concerned parents received about 2,000 calls an hour between 1pm and 6pm.

The popular cassein or curd-based milk substitute is sold under the full name of Milumil for Hungrier Bottle Fed Babies.

Further information is available on the Milupa helpline, 0345 623600.