Ranjit Chandra's Nutrition Studies

Ranjit Chandra's nutrition studies represent a decades-long web of fabrication that influenced infant feeding guidelines worldwide. His 2001 study claiming that multivitamins boost IQ in infants was retracted in 2015 after an investigation found that the data had been entirely manufactured—no subjects had ever been enrolled at the reported facility. This fraud was broader in scope than the relatively contained case of Paolo Macchiarini, affecting over 30 retracted papers from Memorial University. Chandra's claims that breast milk substitutes were inferior triggered 57% of his cited studies to be deemed unreliable, leaving pediatricians and parents misled for nearly two decades. Despite being stripped of his professorship in 2015, he never faced criminal charges, a stark contrast to Macchiarini's imprisonment.