Baby formula recall highlights possible dangers of supply chain globablisation

'The upstream part of the food chain is shaped like an hourglass,' says Ehsan Parandi. 'You have millions of farmers at the bottom and millions of consumers at the top, but in the middle, there is a very narrow pinch-point of massive, specialised ingredient suppliers' 

SMA baby milk, which was subject to an alert from the Food Safety Authority of Ireland last month. Picture: Jason Alden/Bloomberg

A growing scandal around baby food production, including for SMA infant formula and Aptamil, has led to questions about how health authorities monitor the sprawling global food supply chain.

Factories in Macroom and Wexford run by Danone, and in the Netherlands by Nestlé, have been connected to concerns in Ireland about a toxin called cereulide.