We got some of the most important information from Ms. Sarah Gaughren at SMA Nutrition. We felt that it was necessary to talk to someone in this particular company as they deal with baby foods. Since babies cannot swallow iodine tablets, it would take even more time to give them doses of iodine following a nuclear emergency. Therefore it is crucial that they have a little iodine present in their bodies.

I asked Ms. Gaughren the same questions that I asked of Knorr and Erin.

To question 1. regarding any iodine content in SMA foods, Ms. Gaughren answered that yes they add small quantities of iodide to the powdered baby milk.

I asked about the EC regulations and she sent me out a leaflet with the quantities of iodide in SMA foods and the regulations on iodide given by the EC.

The leaflet was very helpful and gave the exact quantities of iodide in micrograms for each SMA product.

The EC regulations were the most interesting! For many of the minerals there was a definite maximum limit. But when we read across for iodide the maximum was marked 'ns' meaning not specified.

I decided to ring Ms. Gaughren back to ask her about this. She told me that she was unsure why it wasn't specified.

I then asked her how SMA decided what quantity of iodide they put into their baby powdered milk. Ms. Gaughren replied that they go by the amount iodide present in human breast-milk and add just a few micrograms above that in some of the products aimed at older babies.

When I asked about the process of how iodide is put into the powdered foods, I was put through to Catherine Begley who worked in the production department. Since she was not in I spoke to someone else in the same department who answered my question.

She told me of a mechanism called a 'spray-dryer' which turns liquid mixtures directly into powder using immense heat. She said that first they mix all the milk, vitamins and minerals together(including the iodide) and then use the spray-dryer to convert it all to powder which is the final product.

This was very important information to us as it meant that iodide could therefore be added to any powdered foods by means of the spray-dryer.