A Prince Albert man says his wife found these two small bugs in a can of President's Choice powdered baby formula. (submitted photo/Motasem Zidan)

By Alison Sandstrom

Consumer concerns

Local man says he found insects in son’s formula

Nov 25, 2019 | 3:03 PM

A Prince Albert man says he got an unwelcome surprise earlier this month when his wife opened a can of powdered baby formula to feed their one-year-old son.

“When she opened the seal, there were two black bugs on the top,” Motasem Zidan told paNOW.

“One of them was dead and one of them was alive. She showed me and I couldn’t believe it. This is infant’s milk.”

Zidan called President’s Choice, the formula’s manufacturer, but said he was unsatisfied with their response. He said the company told him they would mail him a label to send the can back to them for testing. He received the label on Friday.

“How many cans are there like this in Canada with bugs in them? My wife saw this one, so what if there’s another one that nobody saw,” he said.

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Zidan believes the formula should be recalled until a proper investigation can be conducted to ensure it’s safe.

Though the father’s discovery may have been disturbing, University of Saskatchewan entomology professor Sean Prager told paNOW ingesting food containing insects is usually nothing to worry about – and most of us are doing it regularly.

“The likelihood, at least in Canada, of an insect being in your food that’s going to make you sick is very low,” he said.

In fact, according to Prager, all food is expected to contain some level of insects.

“The regulations are not based on not containing insects. It’s actually based on how much insect a given food is allowed to contain and what those insects are,” he said.

“For example, peanut butter is allowed 30 insect pieces per 100 grams.”

Prager said because insects are present at almost every step of food processing, from fields to factories, some of them inevitably sneak into our food.

In Zidan’s case, Prager believes it’s likely that eggs may have been laid in the product at the factory, which would have been difficult to see during packaging.

“Those packages are sitting on a shelf for however long, so if you had something that’s an egg, those eggs would have hatched,” he explained.

paNOW made several attempts to secure comment from President’s Choice. Messages were not returned.

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom