Nara Organics recalls baby formula after infant botulism outbreak

Parents who have Nara Organics Whole Milk Organic Powdered Infant Formula should stop using it immediately and keep a close watch on infants for botulism symptoms for the next month. Federal health officials linked the product to three cases of infant botulism in California, Pennsylvania and Washington, all in babies ages 86 to 153 days old, and all three infants were hospitalized and treated with BabyBIG.

The recall covers all lots of the formula, which was sold nationally through Target stores, Target.com and Nara.com from July 2025 through June 2026. Federal officials said the company recalled the product after being contacted late Friday, June 12, and they said no deaths had been reported. The formula accounts for less than 1 percent of infant formula sales in the United States, so regulators do not expect shortages for families who need replacements.

Infant botulism is rare but serious. It can occur when babies under 1 ingest spores that grow in the immature gut and produce toxin. Symptoms can include constipation, poor feeding, drooping eyelids, weak muscle tone, difficulty swallowing and breathing problems, all of which can require urgent medical attention. Health officials said symptoms can take several weeks to appear, so parents are being told to monitor infants for a full month after the last exposure.

The CDC said all three caregivers reported feeding Nara formula in the month before the babies became sick, and laboratory confirmation for some cases was still underway. Testing of opened cans and unopened product samples was also underway, with results expected in the coming weeks. For any opened can already in a home, the CDC said to photograph it, record the lot number and use-by date, mark it clearly as not for use, and keep it away from other baby food for at least a month before discarding it if no symptoms appear.

The case is likely to renew scrutiny of infant-formula oversight, especially because the product was manufactured in Europe but sold only in the United States. A formula with a relatively small market share still triggered a national response because it reached vulnerable infants through a major retailer and online channels. The public-health response involved the CDC, the FDA, the Infant Botulism Treatment and Prevention Program and state health officials, including California’s infant botulism treatment and prevention program, underscoring how quickly a narrow supply chain issue can become a broad consumer safety problem.