Late December is peak festive season in the West, but at Nestlé, a quiet crisis was unfolding instead. Late last year, the Swiss major had detected a toxin in some batches of its infant formula produced in Europe – and was working hard behind the scenes to risk-manage and test product.
By January 2026, the company was in the midst of its biggest product recall – and its competitors, from Danone to Lactalis, were also among the affected.
So what happened? Third-party supplied ARA oil, an ingredient used to enrich infant formula with omega-6 fatty acids, had become contaminated with cereulide, a toxin that causes nausea and vomiting.
The contamination meant hundreds of infant formula batches from multiple brands were recalled globally – with regulators scrambling to come up with safety thresholds for the toxin, which up until late January 2026, had been unregulated.
The introduction of EU safety levels has restored some clarity for manufacturers, who had previously been forced to recall products at the slightest trace of the toxin.
Meanwhile, contaminated ARA oil is essentially rendered unusable, because the toxin cannot be removed by conventional methods. This poses a supply chain risk for manufacturers, who cannot easily swap one ingredient with another as each formulation is made to tight specification.
But a method to remove cereulide from ARA oil is emerging – and it is perhaps fitting that the company behind it hails from Switzerland.
From refining challenge to recovery opportunity
Nutriswiss AG is a refiner of edible fats and oils. The company processes a range of oils for the food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics world.
It also refines fermentation-produced oils for infant formula, such as DHA-rich algal oils. These oils share several similarities with ARA: both are produced via industrial fermentation; rely on microbial biomass grown on glucose-based nutrient media, and are refined downstream to reach food-grade quality.
These similarities prompted the company’s R&D team to test whether their existing refining methods could be used to address contamination risk across other fermentation-derived oils, including ARA. To do this, the team obtained a sample of tainted ARA oil from a supplier contact and tried to purify it.
Frank Möllering, head of R&D at Nutriswiss AG, told us: “As we also refine supplied DHA-rich fermentation oils based on the microorganism Schizochytrium – which undergo comparable fermentation processes – this was a consideration from an HACCP perspective.”
“Although our customers generally carry out cereulide tests on raw algal oil, the study was intended to show whether potential contamination could be eliminated using existing process steps.
“It became apparent that no significant reduction in the toxin is possible using standard refining steps typical for algal oil. Further steps were therefore also investigated.”
The alternative process they came up with is ‘quite complex’ and cannot be discussed in detail, Möllering said, but what it’s achieved is a near-complete removal of the toxin present in ARA oil in the tested sample.
“Through a specific combination of process steps, process conditions and various processing aids, we have so far managed to slash the original cereulide content of the sample from 200 µg/kg to below 0.3 µg/kg during refining. This corresponds to a reduction of approximately 99.99%.”
But the company needs to go further – and reduce the level to 0.1 µg/kg to meet EU safety standards for ARA oil.
The team is closing in on this target, Möllering told us. “We are nearing completion and were waiting for the relevant external analysis reports,” he said.
Once the method is validated, it could be significant for ingredient suppliers and infant formula manufacturers alike. It would restore the safety of a valuable resource, which would otherwise be destroyed.
And yet, manufacturers may wonder if purified ingredients could be relief upon for use in formulations. So how ‘safe’ is safe?
“All our algal oil raffinates meet the highest purity standards, and we have developed specialised processes for all oils intended for infant formula to effectively reduce or even eliminate other contaminants,” said Möllering. “These include both process-related contaminants such as 3-MCPD/glycidol, as well as those that have entered the oils through environmental influences, for example MOSH/MOAH, plasticisers, PAHs and other toxins. We can offer this service and guarantee a safe product – including in terms of stability and quality. This can be confirmed by independent analyses.”
Rising contaminant detection is raising the bar for food safety
Asked what are the biggest challenges around safety in the food and specialised nutrition industry, Möllering drew a stark picture.
“As analytical methods for detecting contaminants continue to improve, it is becoming increasingly clear that there is a corresponding ‘background level’ of contamination in all raw materials intended for human consumption,” he told us.
“As with all environmental contaminants (such as mineral oil, pesticides and polycyclic hydrocarbons), the fundamental principle is that awareness of the purity of food raw materials should begin in the field or even earlier, and every link in the production chain should operate with the utmost care and in accordance with HACCP guidelines. This applies in particular to raw materials intended for infant nutrition.
“As a refining company, we are traditionally responsible for the purification of oils and fats at the end of this chain, and it is here that the oils attain their food-grade quality. However, the more carefully work is carried out throughout the entire supply chain, the less effort is required at the end for refining.”
Editor’s notes:
µg/kg: micrograms per kilogram
