Baby food: SMA First Infant Milk urgent product recall due to food poisoning risk

Nestlé has issued an urgent recall notice for some batches of its SMA First Infant Milk.

Another urgent recall notice has been issued for a Nestlé baby food product.

The latest recall is again linked to a heat-resistant toxin called cereulide which can cause food poisoning.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has now issued advice for affected babies as the crisis continues to spread globally.

The recall on Tuesday affects an additional batch of Nestlé’s SMA First Infant Milk.

SMA product and batch code 

Parents and carers are advised to check for the following packaging details and if found then not to feed this to babies or children: 

SMA First Infant Milk; pack size: 800g with a batch code of 53390346AB and expiry date of December 2027.

The first Nestlé baby food recall notice was issued in mid-December to 16 countries and its first recall for Ireland was in early January.

Danone and several other companies have also issued recall notices related to the same toxin being found in its food.

The Food Safety of Authority of Ireland warned on Tuesday that the cereulide toxin may be pre-formed in a food and is extremely heat resistant.

Eating food with this toxin can lead to nausea and severe vomiting. Symptoms can appear within five hours, it said. The babies can be ill for between six and 24 hours.

It said no children have been reported ill in Ireland.

The ECDC has advised that if babies develop vomiting or diarrhoea, parents should seek help from healthcare workers, and the child should be taken to a hospital emergency department if they develop more severe symptoms including dehydration or persistent vomiting. It warned: 

Gastrointestinal symptoms in infants can rapidly lead to complications, regardless of the underlying cause. 

The recall happened after the European Food Safety Authority recommended analytical testing. 

Cereulide is a toxin produced by some strains of the bacterium Bacillus cereus.

“This recall is associated with a contaminated raw ingredient which was also implicated in the recent recalls of some batches of infant formula and follow-on formula,” the Food Safety Authority of Ireland said.

On Monday, the 'Irish Examiner' reported that Department of Agriculture inspectors have visited Danone production lines in its Irish factories in Cork and Wexford to assess the risk.

It found no signs of contamination in current production.

Nestlé has set up a careline on 1800 931832

• Niamh Griffin, Health Correspondent