Second infant-formula botulism outbreak in seven months; Marler Clark says the danger in whole-milk powder was documented and public long before three babies were hospitalized
SEATTLE, June 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Marler Clark, The Food Safety Law Firm, has filed suit on behalf of an infant who was hospitalized with botulism after consuming Nara Organics Whole Milk Organic Powdered Infant Formula. The lawsuit alleges that Nara Organics, Inc. sold a whole-milk-based infant formula to American families at a time when the botulism risk in that very ingredient had already been documented by federal regulators and demonstrated in a near-identical outbreak — and that the company marketed the hazard to parents as a premium virtue rather than warning them about it.
The Outbreak
On June 13, 2026, Nara Organics recalled all of its Whole Milk Organic Infant Formula — every lot and both can size after federal and state health officials linked the product to a multistate outbreak of infant botulism. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), three infants in California, Pennsylvania, and Washington, ranging in age from two to five months, were sickened with type A botulinum toxin, with illness onset between April and May 2026. All three babies were hospitalized and treated with BabyBIG®, the antitoxin produced by the California Department of Public Health.
The recalled formula was manufactured in Germany and sold only in the United States — nationally, through Target stores, Target.com, and Nara.com — between July 2025 and June 2026.
A Risk That Was Already Known
This is the second infant-formula botulism outbreak in seven months. In November 2025, ByHeart Whole Nutrition Infant Formula — also made from whole milk powder — was tied to an outbreak that the FDA reported sickened approximately 48 infants across 17 states. That outbreak, and the nationwide recall and FDA warning letters that followed it, were public months before the Nara babies in this outbreak became ill.
The lawsuit alleges that, by the time Nara Organics was still manufacturing, distributing, and selling its whole-milk formula in the spring of 2026, the danger was no longer hypothetical. Years earlier, on March 8, 2023, the FDA issued a formal Call-to-Action letter to the infant-formula industry that named Clostridium botulinum by name and identified whole milk powder as a potential vehicle for contamination. The science was not in dispute: botulinum spores survive ordinary pasteurization and the spray-drying used to make powdered formula, and they can take hold in an infant’s gut and produce a paralytic toxin.
The Ingredient Nara Sold as a Selling Point Was the Hazard
Nara Organics marketed its product as the first and only USDA-certified organic whole-milk infant formula and represented that it contained more organic whole-milk fat than any other infant formula sold in the United States. The lawsuit alleges that Nara turned the single most dangerous feature of its product — its high whole-milk-powder content, the very ingredient regulators had flagged as a botulism vehicle — into its central marketing claim, while saying nothing to parents about the known risk.
After the outbreak, the complaint alleges, Nara continued to shape the story: describing its recall as an act taken “in an abundance of caution” and assuring families that they “deserve to have complete confidence in the safety” of their baby’s food — language that recasts a foreseeable failure as voluntary diligence. Marler Clark intends to show that Nara knew, or in the exercise of reasonable care should have known, that its formula carried a botulism risk, and that it represented its product as safe and premium when it was neither.
Statement of Bill Marler
“This is the second time in seven months that American babies have been paralyzed by botulism in powdered formula made from whole milk. The first time was a tragedy. The second time was a choice,” said Bill Marler, managing partner of Marler Clark. “By the spring of 2026, every company selling whole-milk-powder formula — Nara included — had been told in plain terms that this exact ingredient can carry Clostridium botulinum. Nara didn’t warn parents. It did the opposite. It sold the very ingredient that poisoned these children as the reason its formula was worth more.”
“Nara built its brand on having more whole milk fat than anyone else,” Marler added. “That was never a feature. It was the hazard — and the warnings were already on the table. Parents trusted a label that told them this was the safest, most premium thing they could feed their child. They were entitled to the truth.”
About This Case
The lawsuit was filed on June 22, 2026, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania by Erica and Micky Goldfin of Yardley, Pennsylvania, on behalf of their infant son, who is identified in the complaint by the initials W.G. Case 2:26-cv-04272.
W.G. was born on March 2, 2026, and his parents began feeding him Nara Organics Whole Milk Organic Infant Formula just days later, on or about March 5. They purchased the formula at a Target store in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, and through Target.com. On June 13, 2026, Nara recalled every lot of the formula, including the three production lots to which the outbreak infants were exposed.
In early May 2026, when W.G. was two months old, he began to show hallmark signs of infant botulism — constipation, poor feeding, a weak cry, loss of head control, low muscle tone, difficulty swallowing, and drooping eyelids. On June 1, he was taken to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where he was admitted and spent two nights in the intensive care unit. He was given fluids intravenously, monitored around the clock, and kept from feeding for more than 18 hours until he could be treated with BabyBIG®, the botulism antitoxin, which was administered in the early morning of June 2. While hospitalized, he also developed thrush, which required additional treatment.
W.G. was moved out of intensive care on June 3 and discharged on June 6, and laboratory testing confirmed that he had contracted type A infant botulism. He has improved substantially since receiving BabyBIG® — he is more alert and vocal, is feeding well again, and has regained movement in his arms and legs — but he continues to feel the effects of the illness. Through Pennsylvania’s early intervention program, W.G. is now receiving weekly physical therapy for significant head lag and delays in his gross and fine motor skills.
A Preventable Failure — and a Fix Already Before Congress
Marler has called on Congress to pass the Infant Formula Safety Modernization Act, the bipartisan legislation introduced in March 2026 by U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.). The bill would, for the first time, require infant-formula manufacturers to test for Clostridium botulinum — a pathogen current federal rules do not require them to test for, which mandate screening only for Cronobacter and Salmonella — and would require environmental testing inside manufacturing facilities to detect contamination before product ever reaches a store shelf or a baby’s bottle. On June 16, 2026, Rep. DeLauro renewed her call to pass the bill in direct response to the Nara Organics outbreak.
“Congresswoman DeLauro has put on the table the one thing that would have caught both of these outbreaks before a single baby was hurt: mandatory testing for botulism, and mandatory environmental testing inside the plants that make this formula,” said Marler. “Everything I am alleging in this case — that the risk was known, that it was testable, that it was preventable — is exactly what her bill is built to fix. We should not need another paralyzed infant to act. Congress should pass the Infant Formula Safety Modernization Act now.”
About Marler Clark
Marler Clark, The Food Safety Law Firm, is the nation’s leading law firm representing victims of foodborne illness. Since the 1993 Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak, the firm has represented thousands of people injured in nearly every major foodborne-illness outbreak in the United States, recovering more than $950 million for its clients. Marler Clark publishes Food Safety News and the www.marlerblog.com. Managing partner Bill Marler is an internationally recognized food-safety advocate. For more information, visit www.marlerclark.com.
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SOURCE Marler Clark, The Food Safety Law Firm
