Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what specific support and guidance has been provided to NHS services in a) Leicester and b) the East Midlands to identify and manage infants presenting with symptoms consistent with the cereulide toxin exposure.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), along with partner agencies in the devolved administrations, have been supporting the Food Standards Agency, Food Standards Scotland, and local authorities with their investigations responding to the recall of infant formula products potentially contaminated with cereulide toxin.

Briefing notes with situational updates on successive formula recalls, case numbers and guidance on management of cases were issued on 7 January 2026, 27 January 2026, and 12 February 2026 to primary care including general practitioners, National Health Service clinicians, private hospitals, and other health care professionals across the whole of England. These communications reminded health care professionals to notify cases to the UKHSA and included advice on clinical assessment and management of cases of cereulide toxicity, diagnostic testing of clinical samples and of recalled formula for toxigenic Bacillus cereus or detection of cereulide toxin gene. The briefing notes were extensively cascaded across various professional networks, for instance Royal College of General Practitioners, Emergency medicine, Neonatology and Paediatrics.

This has led to the UKHSA receiving multiple clinical notifications from across England, allowing us to investigate potential cases further, including testing individual batches of recalled formula from the households of children who have presented to healthcare settings for presence of the toxin.

Throughout this process the UKHSA’s health protection teams and experts in gastrointestinal infections have engaged with and supported NHS clinicians and families of children who may have ingested recalled batches of formula.