International Recall of Tainted Baby Formula

Photo courtesy of Nature Baby.

HONG KONG - The Centre for Food Safety is advising parents to stop feeding their babies the formula Babynat Organic Infant Milk which has been found to have batches contaminated with the Enterobacter sukiyaki bacteria.

“Symptoms [of infection] include poor feeding response, irritability, jaundice, grunting respirations and unstable body temperature, with infection progressing to meningitis in a large number of neonatal cases,” according to information provided by Ecolab, a St. Paul, Minn.-based provider of cleaning, food safety and health protection products and services for the hospitality, foodservice, healthcare, and industrial markets.

Regarding the bacteria, Ecolab states that “death has been reported in up to 50 percent of neonatal patients, occurring within a few hours to several days. Surviving infants may experience neurological impairment and central nervous system infection. Recently, the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains has been observed.”

European Union authorities informed the Hong Kong CFS that Vitagermine, the French manufacturer, is recalling the product as South Korean authorities had found the bacteria in batches of the products.

The Hong Kong CFS has alerted the trade to stop selling the particular product and said that is closely monitoring the situation.