International food safety event: Infant formula and products containing arachidonic acid oil contaminated with cereulide toxin - Multi-country was recorded by Global Incident Tracker on Friday, 13 March 2026 at 16:05 UTC. The event is classified as a epidemic incident with a severity rating of Severe, and was detected through the World Health Organization (WHO).
Multi-country recalls of infant formula and other products have been initiated after cereulide toxin, was detected in batches of multiple internationally distributed brands. Investigations have identified arachidonic acid (ARA) oil, used as an ingredient in the implicated products, as the source of contamination. However, the full root cause analysis and complete traceability of all affected batches remains under investigation. Contaminated formulae, nutritional products, and oil mixes have been distributed to 99 countries and territories across six WHO Regions, with the first product recalls initiated on 10 December 2025. Between 1 January and 25 February 2026, 144 suspected and confirmed cases were reported across ten countries in three WHO Regions, with investigations ongoing. Based on the available information, WHO assesses the overall public health risk as moderate due to the vulne
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Data and verification
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Timeline and sources
Officially recorded
An official record exists from World Health Organization. That confirms the event was recorded; figures quoted from news reports are not confirmed by it.
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· received · event time 13 Mar 2026, 16:05 UTCFirst report Humanitarian agency report
First recorded from World Health Organization.
Times are when this site received each report, in UTC; the event time is shown where the source gave one. Copies of one syndicated story count as one report.