Child helps in casein battle

Press, 16 November 1981, Page 13

Child helps in casein battle

NZPA staff correspondent Washington

Marianna Batie, aged six, has appeared before a trade inquiry in Washington as living evidence of the value of casein in medical preparations.

The pretty little blonde sat smiling as her mother urged the United States International Trade Commission not to impose restrictions on imported casein. Mrs Marilyn Batie, from Salisbury, Maryland, told how a casein-based product called Nutramigen had saved Marianna’s life when she was a baby. “At six months old she had chronic diarrohea, and could not eat or drink anything. She was starving to death, and six months of various cures and diets did nothing to improve her condition. "Then she was put on to Nutramigen,” Mrs Batie said, “and it worked.”

She told the commission: “The United States of America would not be better off without casein, or without Marianna.”

Mrs Batie appeared before the commission as a private individual after reading in a newspaper about pressure for casein import restrictions. "1 felt I had to speak up,” she said. An elderly physician, Dr Wilfred Hood, of Hudson, Massachusetts, also told the I.T.C. that a casein-based

formula had helped to save his life recently after a serious illness.

He said the lives of one million Americans, who could not eat or drink normal foods, were saved every year by medical preparations made with casein..

The I.T.C. concluded a two-day public hearing into casein imports, requested by President Reagan. The commissioners have to decide whether the imports are materially interfering with the Government’s dairy price support programme by displacing American milk products from the processed food industry. American dairymen, who do not make casein, asked the I.T.C. to impose a quota which would limit imports to half present levels. In its testimony, the national milk producers federation suggested that if imports were restricted a licensing procedure should be established to ensure unlimited amounts were available to the medical and pharmaceutical industries. New Zealand, which supplies half of America’s casein imports — the trade being worth about $75 million last year — gave evidence against import barriers, along with Australia and big American food processing companies. The I.T.C. is expected to rule on the case in early January.