Hong Kong toddler suspected to have fallen ill from tainted milk formula

A one-year-old girl may have suffered food poisoning after consuming Nestlé infant milk formula, Hong Kong authorities have said, while revealing they have received about 50 reports of children feeling unwell amid a growing contamination scare.

The Centre for Food Safety separately ordered the immediate removal of 390 cans of Aptamil Profutura DUO Advance 1 (800g) from shelves, as officials expanded a citywide recall to include a second batch of the milk powder imported from Germany.

The Centre for Health Protection said on Friday that the one-year-old toddler suffered diarrhoea up to five times a day shortly after consuming Nestlé Nan INFINIPRO2 7HMO (800g) formula from batch 53070742F1 on December 30.

The scare centres on the possible presence of cereulide, a toxin produced by Bacillus cereus, in baby milk formula. Consuming food contaminated with excessive Bacillus cereus or its heat-stable toxins can lead to symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhoea.

“Given the girl’s persistent symptoms after consuming the powdered formula concerned, and the compatibility of the timing and symptoms with cereulide poisoning, we cannot rule out the possibility that she developed cereulide poisoning from consuming the above-mentioned powdered infant and young children formula,” the centre’s controller, Dr Edwin Tsui Lok-kin, said.

The girl did not require hospitalisation and her health improved after her parents switched to an unaffected product, the centre said.