Australia’s Department of Agriculture is aware of a criminal threat to contaminate consumer ready infant formula manufactured in New Zealand.*

This is a criminal matter for New Zealand and New Zealand is treating this threat seriously.

No infant formula in New Zealand has been found to have been contaminated.

New Zealand has conducted an assessment of its infant formula supply chain and has advised that the products exported to Australia are safe and that the threat is low.

The threat is that 1080 poison has been added to infant formula offered for sale in New Zealand by someone who wants to cease the New Zealand Government’s 1080 baiting programme for the control of feral animals.

The department understands and shares the community’s concerns about the safety and integrity of infant formula.

New Zealand has advised it has tested more than 40,000 raw milk and product samples and have had no detections of 1080 contamination.

The Australian Department of Agriculture is closely watching the outcomes of the criminal matter in New Zealand.

The Department of Agriculture is continuing to liaise closely with the New Zealand Government and our state and territory counterparts.

The Department of Agriculture will consider further actions should the risk associated with infant formula imported from New Zealand change in the future.​