“There are a lot of ingredients,” observes Sylène Brianceau, consulting the list on the back of a box of Gallia brand infant milk.
45, to be exact.
"But that's what it takes to meet the nutritional needs of an infant," continues the research director of Agrotec, a technical center in agri-food located in Agen.
For the purposes of this report, the scientist agreed to imitate the industrial recipe.
"First you need skimmed cow's milk, without fat, which you replace with oils of rapeseed, copra, sunflower, fish and Mortierella alpina, a fungus...", she says while reading the list ingredients.
The milk and oils are then enriched with vitamins, minerals and other probiotics, among others, then placed on a benchtop atomizer: the liquid is pumped, sprayed into a column heated to 160°C where the droplets are instantly dehydrated.
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The copy of infant milk settles at the bottom of a drip tray.
“Our recipe is partial.
It's really a test,” insists Sylène Brianceau.
She dilute the powder in a dose of hot water and does the same with Gallia infant milk.
She tastes the copy: “It looks like milk!
And the Gallia?
"It's really not to my liking.
But is it safe?
Showing on her phone the pdf of the directive of December 26, 2006 “concerning infant formula”: “I have never had to deal with such regulated products”, she reassures.
It counts the number of pages in the document: 33!
In 2018, Lactalis, the world's leading dairy group, found itself at the heart of a salmonella-contaminated infant milk scandal which allegedly poisoned dozens of infants.
Even if the trial has not yet taken place, one would have expected that the producers of infant milk would want, in our video report, to show how much they respected health standards... but none of them responded to our filming requests.
In order to understand what the ingredients used in infant milks were for, we therefore had to call a dietician who was an expert in these products.
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“Some infant milks use palm oil, reads Amanda Huguet-Milon, on the back of a Blédina packet.
It contains palmitic acid, the main fatty acid found in breast milk.
But it also raises ethical and ecological questions…” In fact, this ingredient is widely pointed out as a major cause of deforestation in Asia.
“As a result, many manufacturers insist on not putting palm oil in their recipe, continues the health specialist, describing the front of the Calisma product from Gallia.
The other side of the coin is that you have to find a mixture of oils that comes as close as possible to the composition of palm oil.
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So, is breast milk the best solution?
"Yes, definitely," replies the tit-for-tat expert.
Infant milk is standardized while mother's milk will vary in taste depending on the meal.
We will be able to prepare the child for the diversification of food, we will provide him with antibodies… But breastfeeding must be a choice and infant milk allows this choice.
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Blind tasting of all the milks
And in terms of taste?
A cheesemonger was asked to blind taste four milks intended for infants – one of them being real breast milk given by a young mother for the purposes of the report.
“It's quite weird.
There is a slightly “dried fruit” taste and a floaty texture, comments Pierre Coulon, who produces his own cheeses at La Laiterie de Paris, after having tasted Blédina milk blindfolded.
It's also very sweet!
The second is breast milk: “That's atrocious.
It smells of dirty clothes…”
The Gallia is “super weird, quite close to the first.
And the Guigoz optipro?
"More sugar, more fleet!"
His ranking will be as follows: Guigoz (20.71 € / kg), Gallia (19.33 € / kg), Blédina (14.11 € / kg) and breast milk last (free).
"For my mother, powdered milk was an opportunity to raise us, to divide up the tasks with my father, to free herself from the constraints of breastfeeding, testifies Pierre Coulon.
For my sister, on the other hand, breastfeeding was a revolution!
Infant milk or breast milk: these are therefore two universes that I do not judge.
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Three things to remember.
First of all, it is true that there is no zero health risk concerning infant milk.
That said, these products are very scrupulously regulated and controlled.
Finally, if you can and if you can breastfeed, the best milk for the baby and for the planet remains that of its mother.
