Federal authorities have especially warned Chinese American communities across the United States, including Southern California, which houses the largest ethnic Chinese populations in the nation.
The Chinese- made formula is tainted with melamine, a chemical used in the manufacture of plastics. Ingesting melamine could be fatal depending on the amount and the health of the infant and can causes kidney stones in the babies who drink the formula.
It is the same chemical found in dog food processed in China and sold in the United States. Several thousand pets died from eating the contaminated food in 2007.
There have been no reports of contaminated infant formula in the United States, and no reports of infant death related to the contaminated formula in China, the FDA said in a statement. The federal agency has also contacted all domestic formula manufacturers to confirm that they do not use any formula or parts of formula from China.
The FDA has approved infant formula products from the following manufacturers: Abbott Nutritionals, Mead Johnson Nutritionals, Nestle USA, PBM Nutritionals, and Solus Products.
