Danone Widens Baby-Formula Recall; Portuguese Parents Urged to Check Tins

Danone has widened its infant-formula recall to five additional European markets, a move that should prompt Portuguese parents to scrutinise any Aptamil, Almiron or Cow & Gate tins they may have picked up across the border or ordered online.

Why This Matters

• Heat-resistant cereulide toxin can trigger vomiting in babies within 5 hours.

• All batches produced between June 2025 and February 2026 of certain Aptamil, Almiron and Cow & Gate lines are affected.

• Refunds are automatic—return the product to the shop or courier, no receipt required.

• Helpline +351 800 200 929 is now live for Portuguese consumers with questions.

What Is Behind the Recall?

The trigger is cereulide, a toxin made by the common soil bacterium Bacillus cereus. Danone traced the contamination to a Chinese-made arachidonic-acid oil (ARA) used to enrich brain-development fats in several formulas. Although pasteurisation kills most bacteria, cereulide survives high temperatures, which is why the risk remains even after standard sterilisation. In late January the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) cut the permitted one-day exposure limit in half, forcing manufacturers to act immediately.

Where the Problem Has Spread

The expanded recall now covers the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, Croatia and Slovenia, on top of earlier actions in Austria, France and four other EU states. British regulators logged 36 baby-illness reports, while Spanish agency AESAN flagged additional Almiron lots. Germany’s consumer-protection office issued its own alert for Aptamil Pre and Milumil. The same German facility supplies retail chains that ship to Portugal through e-commerce platforms, explaining why ASAE is monitoring incoming parcels at Lisbon and Porto airports.

How Retailers and Pharmacies Are Responding

Big-box chains operating in Portugal, including Continente, Auchan and El Corte Inglés, pulled the relevant SKUs from central warehouses as a precaution, even though the official recall notice does not list the Portuguese market. Online pharmacies such as MiFarma are emailing customers who bought the affected codes since July 2025. Danone has switched to an alternate ARA supplier in the Netherlands and restarted production; replacement stock is already reaching shelves in Germany and France.

What This Means for Residents

Portuguese parents routinely cross into Galicia or Andalusia for bulk purchases of baby food, and many expat families rely on UK e-commerce sites for specific formulations. If you bought any of the following, stop using it immediately:

Aptamil 1 or 2 (all formats, best-before dates up to January 2027)

Cow & Gate First Infant or Follow On (all pack sizes, dates up to February 2027)

Almiron Advance cans imported from Spain between September 2025 and February 2026

Return the tin to the retailer for a cash refund or call the Portuguese helpline noted above. Symptoms—nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps—usually pass within 24 hours, but contact the Saúde 24 hotline (808 24 24 24) if your child shows signs of dehydration.

The Bigger Picture for the Baby-Food Industry

Recalls of this scale rarely stay confined. Nestlé and Lactalis have already issued smaller, pre-emptive withdrawals after using the same Chinese ARA supplier. Analysts at Banco BPI estimate Danone’s recall bill could reach €50 M, equivalent to a quarter of its 2025 global infant-nutrition profit. Yet investors appear reassured by the swift action; Danone shares in Paris slipped only 1.8% last week. The episode underscores a larger trend: European regulators are tightening toxin thresholds just as more ingredients arrive from long supply chains.

For Portuguese families the immediate advice is simple—check the batch code before the next feed—but the long-term takeaway may be broader. Expect retailers to push for shorter, EU-based ingredient chains, and for Brussels to introduce even stricter infant-formula rules before the year is out.