Geneva, 22 May 2026 – On Friday afternoon, IBFAN and ILCA co-hosted an official Side Event at WHO Headquarters, bringing together food safety experts, representatives from WHO, UNICEF, EU Parliament, Member States and Young people to discuss the global infant formula contamination crisis and the need for a coordinated response. The event was co-sponsored by Burundi, Panama and Ecuador, and supported by the van Tulleken Foundation and Colansa.
The session was chaired by Zoe Faulkner, Member of the Board of Directors of ILCA, who opened with a direct call to action: “We are here to encourage working together to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect all families. We will be inviting Member States to take a lead in bringing a resolution to the Assembly.”
The crisis first came to public attention in November 2025, with the detection of contamination with spore-forming bactéria in formula produced by the American company ByHeart. This led to the hospitalisation of 48 infants with botulism. In December of the same year, cereulide – a toxin produced by the bacterium Bacillus cereus was detected in formulas made by Nestlé, Danone, Lactalis and others were traced back to an optional ingredient, arachidonic acid (ARA) – an oil produced by a single supplier in China and distributed by manufacturers in formulas to over 130 countries.
Dr Joan Matji, Chief of Nutrition and Food Security at UNICEF, described the scale of the crisis: “What began in December 2025 as a precautionary action has expanded significantly across global supply chains. It now involves products distributed to up to 99 countries and territories, making it one of the most significant recent food safety incidents affecting infants worldwide.” Matji added that at that very moment she was receiving “copious emails from countries affected by Ebola requesting ready-to-use infant formula” – a reminder that the crisis does not exist in a vacuum, but in a world marked by simultaneous humanitarian emergencies.
Dr Carmen Savelli, WHO Food Safety, explained the role of WHO and the INFOSAN network and how e-commerce is an aggravating factor in the increasingly complex food safety arena: “E-commerce is introducing new distribution pathways and challenges we had not seen before. When products are sold on third-party platforms and shipped internationally direct to consumers in many countries, traditional traceability systems may be insuficient. With such complex distribution and limited resources, regulators will face challenges when implementing risk management measures and ensuring consistent messaging. Limited laboratory capacity in some settings can also add to the delays and lack of transparancy. Since many of the factories involved are based in Europe, WHO collaboration with the European Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed, (RASFF) has been critical. Savelli stressed the importance of strengthened vigilance and international cooperation: “The scale and complexity of large recalls affecting many products can make it difficult for consumers to identify affected products and respond appropriately.”
Simone MORAES RASZL, WHO’s Unit Head for Scientific Advice and Standards followed with an update on the FAO/WHO Joint Expert Meetings on Microbiological Risk Assessment (JEMRA) that will meet in June and the Codex and WHO/FAO guidelines, cautioning that since these are unlikely to be finalised before 2028.
[1] (Joint FAO/WHO Expert Meeting on Microbiological Risk Assessment (JEMRA) on microbiological risk assessment on powdered formulae for infants and young children 15 – 19 June 2026)
One of the most powerful moments of the event was the screening of a video featuring testimonies from affected families across several countries. One mother recounted: “We had no information about any problem with the product. With our paediatrician, we thought it was related to breastfeeding and I completely changed my diet. Only after two weeks did we find information online – and our batch was on the official list.” Another mother, who was already grieving her inability to breastfeed, described introducing formula during a period of great vulnerability, unaware that the product might be the cause of her son’s symptoms. The video also included the testimony of parents whose two-month-old baby was diagnosed with botulism: “We believe companies can correct mistakes only when there is real accountability. If there is no real regulatory change, the message to the industry will be that the risk to babies’ lives can simply be priced in as a cost of doing business.” – VIEW VIDEO
Dr Bob Boyle, Associate Professor of Paediatrics at Imperial College London, raised a question that resonated throughout the discussion: “Arachidonic acid does not have to be in formula – it is not mandated. It is an optional ingredient, largely there to prop up marketing claims. Why do we have optional ingredients in such an important food for such a vulnerable population?” His challenge struck at the heart of the crisis: the contamination was traced to an ingredient that is unnecessary from a nutritional standpoint, whose primary purpose was to support unsubstantiated clams about improved cognitive development.
The intervention of Dr Yasmine Motarjemi, former corporate food safety manager at Nestlé and whistleblower, was one of the most anticipated of the day. With a career spanning both WHO and Nestlé, she described decades of ignored warnings: “For 15 years, I spoke publicly about problems of food safety management at Nestlé, but regulatory and public health authorities showed no interest. The path to justice is long, costly and full of obstacles. Motarjemi documented cases of silent recalls of contaminated products, the linking of managers’ bonuses to product recall, a policy that discourages recall of products, and the absence of effective oversight by regulatory authorities: “If Nestlé and other companies behave this way, it is largely due to weaknesses and inertia within regulatory authorities.”
“We must recognize that food production is inherently risky. From farm to table, foodstuffs face pathogens, chemicals and other hazards. Factors such as globalization, the complexity of the food chain and products themselves, the constant change in production, environmental contamination, climate, and the educational ethics of producers and food handlers increase food safety risks. Pressure from shareholders for higher profit drives corporations to optimize prices and adopt cost-saving policies, make product safety more vulnerable and risk management more challenging.
So ensuring food safety requires serious and conscious effort. But what makes an incident intolerable Is negligence in prevention or management. We have repeatedly seen government officials share responsibility during incidents, even sometimes refusing to communicate publicly, claiming companies are responsible for product safety. This is a severe misperception. While corporations bear strict liability for their products, public health and regulatory authorities are accountable to consumers for ensuring safety.
Consumer trust depends on the competence of regulatory bodies. Overseeing food businesses. Authorities must provide food companies with guidance and legislation, and exercise oversight. But their role goes beyond simple compliance with legislation. They should also verify that companies have the right internal structure, human resources, expertise, procedures, and ethical culture to manage food safety effectively.
Dr Polycarpe Ndayikeza, spokesperson for Burundi’s Ministry of Health – one of the event’s co-sponsoring countries – brought the perspective of nations with limited response capacity: “It is quite possible that cereulide intoxication in formula-fed infants exists in Burundi – but we have no laboratory capacity to confirm that.” The country nonetheless recorded an exclusive breastfeeding rate of approximately 85%, described as a significant protective factor.
The Panamanian panel, represented by Dr Romualdo Navarro, reinforced concerns about “the uncontrolled growth of digital marketing used by industry to influence mothers, fathers and caregivers through misleading information – promoting unnecessary formula use.”
Danish UN Youth Delegate, Petrine Johannesen Berner expressed her fears: “ As a young woman myself, who wants to have kids someday. This is very scary because I might not be able to breastfeed, and then I might have to use formula. How can I know that something like this never happens again? That makes me scared, as a future mother and makes me scared for all the other future mothers out there.” We need to make sure that nothing like this goes to market.
Luxembourg MEP Tilly Metz, Vice-Chair of Directorate-General for Health & Food Safety (DG SANTE), member of the Committee on Environment, Climate and Food Safety ENVI, vice-chair of the Delegation for relations with South Africa, outlined the steps taken by the EU and stressed that regulatory responses must be commensurate with the scale of the crisis. Infant formula, the food we give to our most vulnerable babies under 6 months must be safe. The main issue is that we don’t have enough control over the global supply chains that and we need more structured, more systemic cooperation with the WHO. The whistle-blower directive is not efficient enough, allowing companies 3 months to react is too long.
Dr Lynn Tshimi Moeng Mahlangu, IBFAN Chair, supported Dr Polycarpe’s concerns about the lack of testing in the African region “If there’s no testing, for most of the children who died, we can’t link them to the formula or know what caused the illness. After the announcement mothers panicked, parents were not able find numbers on the tin, some changed formula, others thought their children were allergic. One bought two tins and called Nestle, who said, “open the other tin and see if it will also make your child sick” . One was asked to go back and collect a voucher for another tin! We have sick children in an ailing health system that can’t differentiate between types of Diarreah. On Facebook, some said “My child almost died and I didn’t know what the reason was. I only saw now that it’s actually this formula that I’m using. I thought I had mixed it wrongly. I thought I had done something wrong.
The closing address was delivered by Patti Rundall, member of IBFAN’s Global Council, who offered a damning analysis of the multi-stakeholder approach that has allowed the crisis to unfold, “….encouraging governments to believe that the culpable companies – particularly big ones with fabulous names like Nestlé – would never do anything terrible, and that they can be trusted. This is a nonsense and it’s about time they are held accountable. Governments must not be let off the hook either – too many are hanging back. We all need to help our governments do the right thing.” Rundall also denounced a new Codex guidance, proposed by the USA, that may soon be adopted to allow flexible labelling of food products in emergency situations: “This is a form of disaster capitalism – a deliberate tactic to promote products as healthy in the West – while doubling the level of sugar in developing countries and allowing weak labelling safeguards. She made an urgent call to all Member States to send health delegates to Codex and ensure that products for babies are excluded from these dangerous proposals. We need more like Eva Edwards from Nigeria, who regularly speaks up at Codex calling for greater protection of infants.
Simone Moraes Raszl, from Codex Alimentarius, picked up on this point with a direct call to governments: “When we say Codex is approving something – we are really talking about the Member States. We need public health authorities to be committed to protect the most vulnerable, to be actively participating on those committees and on the electronic working groups of all Codex committees, not just in Hygiene’
The chair closed the session by inviting all Member States to consider taking a lead on developing a resolution in 2027. Immediately following the meeting, Nigeria, Mexico and Burundi confirmed that they are ready to support it.
The full recording of the Side Event is available on the IBFAN website and on the IBFAN YouTube channel.
Co-hosted by IBFAN · ILCA · Burundi · Panama · Ecuador
Supported by The van Tulleken Foundation · Colansa
