\u201cThere is absolutely no acceptable excuse for these late recalls,\u201d says Ingrid Kragl, director of information and research at Foodwatch. \u201cManufacturers of infant formula are legally obliged to guarantee the safety of the products they place on the market. The companies we are targeting have shown enormous negligence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kragl says the companies are now \u201cminimizing the problem and denying the link between the use of the recalled milk powders and the serious symptoms that many babies have experienced,\u201d calling this response \u201cextraordinarily indecent.\u201d<\/p>\n
The crisis has already hit investors. Nestl\u00e9 shares have fallen nearly 10% in January, while Danone dropped 4% to its lowest level since January 2025. Analysts from US investment bank Jefferies estimate Nestl\u00e9\u2019s financial exposure could reach \u20ac1 billion (US$1.1 billion), though the company maintains the recall represents less than 0.5% of annual sales. For Danone, the stakes are higher: infant formula accounts for approximately 21% of group revenue, compared to around 5% for Nestl\u00e9.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nestl\u00e9 disputes Foodwatch\u2019s account, claiming it was \u201cthe first in the industry to detect the issue\u201d through its own testing \u2014 not via notification from the Chinese supplier, as Foodwatch alleges (citing sources from French authorities). Nestl\u00e9 says it \u201cacted swiftly\u201d once it confirmed the contamination and maintains it has received no medical reports confirming illness linked to its products. CEO Philipp Navratil issued a public apology in mid-January, saying the company is \u201ccooperating in full transparency\u201d with authorities.<\/p>\n
Cereulide contamination traced to ARA oil from a Chinese supplier has triggered recalls across more than 60 countries.Lactalis and Danone subsequently announced their own withdrawals, with Singapore\u2019s Food Agency detecting cereulide in Danone\u2019s Dumex brand on January 17. Danone recalled Gallia and Bl\u00e9dina products on January 23, citing \u201cnew recommendations from a European authority.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lactalis has said it \u201cacted without waiting for results\u201d from supplier investigations. Danone has stated it detected no cereulide in its own testing but recalled products following guidance from European authorities.<\/p>\n
Confirmed illness cases mount<\/p>\n
Authorities in Belgium, Luxembourg, and Brazil have publicly confirmed links between consumption of recalled formula and infant illness. In the Netherlands, four babies are now known to have fallen ill after consuming the affected products. French prosecutors have opened investigations into the deaths of two infants who had consumed recalled Nestl\u00e9 formula, though no causal link has been established.<\/p>\n
Foodwatch\u2019s complaint requests a criminal investigation into potential violations, including endangering infant health, aggravated deception, marketing harmful products, and failing to execute timely recalls.<\/p>\n
The contamination has been traced to arachidonic acid (ARA) oil, an omega-6 ingredient supplied by a Chinese manufacturer to multiple formula producers. Nestl\u00e9 informed Dutch authorities on December 9, 2025, following internal testing at its Nunspeet facility in the Netherlands \u2014 yet mass public recalls did not begin until early January 2026.<\/p>\n
Timeline under scrutiny<\/p>\n
The delay is central to Foodwatch\u2019s case. According to the organization\u2019s investigation, Lactalis products now being recalled had been on sale since January 2025 \u2014 a full year before withdrawal. Nestl\u00e9 and Danone products were sold for months before recalls were issued.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat the food was sold for months by Nestl\u00e9 and Danone \u2014 and even a year in the case of Lactalis \u2014 is scandalous,\u201d Kragl says.<\/p>\n
Recalls have left parents checking batch numbers across more than 60 countries.Fran\u00e7ois Lafforgue, the lawyer representing Foodwatch and the affected families, says the manufacturers\u2019 liability \u201cseems clear to us.\u201d He adds: \u201cThese manufacturers could not have been unaware of the food safety obligations incumbent upon them. We ask for the greatest rigor in this case, which concerns the health of babies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lafforgue previously represented Foodwatch in complaints against Lactalis over salmonella-contaminated infant formula in 2018 and against Nestl\u00e9 over E. coli-contaminated Buitoni pizzas in 2022. Both companies were subsequently indicted.<\/p>\n
Evidence preservation warning<\/p>\n
Foodwatch is urging parents not to discard product packaging or remaining formula, warning that some retailers and brands have instructed consumers to throw away or return boxes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The organization says Nestl\u00e9\u2019s Guigoz brand asked parents to return packaging \u2014 a practice Foodwatch argues could compromise evidence needed for testing and legal proceedings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe powder may be needed as evidence and for tests,\u201d the organization states. Parents who suspect their child has consumed affected products should retain all packaging and seek medical advice if symptoms develop.<\/p>\n
Regulatory failures alleged<\/p>\n
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) issued a statement yesterday confirming it has received illness reports linked to the recalled products.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The European Commission has now asked EFSA to establish an acute reference dose for cereulide in infants \u2014 a threshold that would determine at what contamination level products should be recalled. The guidance is expected in early February, nearly two months after the first recalls began.<\/p>\n
The Foodwatch complaint also targets national food safety authorities. Nestl\u00e9 reported the contamination to the Dutch authority, the NVWA, on December 9. Yet, when Foodwatch asked about the issue on December 15, NVWA responded that \u201cno distribution in the Netherlands and Belgium has taken place.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
By January 5, Dutch products were being recalled. NVWA later explained that the scope changed after Nestl\u00e9\u2019s tracing investigation revealed the contamination came from a raw material affecting multiple products.<\/p>\n
Foodwatch also questions why Italy \u2014 not the Netherlands \u2014 filed the first EU alert on December 12, given the contamination was identified at Nestl\u00e9\u2019s Dutch facility.<\/p>\n
Food Ingredients First has contacted Nestl\u00e9, Lactalis, Danone, Vitagermine, and NVWA for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dutch consumer watchdog Foodwatch has filed a criminal complaint in Paris, France, naming seven infant formula manufacturers \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[126],"tags":[2367,547,1212,199,548],"class_list":["post-2946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nestle","tag-cereulide","tag-food-safety","tag-infant-formula","tag-nestle","tag-product-recall"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}