France’s Lactalis, the largest dairy group in the world, started a global recall of potentially contaminated infant formula earlier this week, with the exclusive Cambodian distributor of the product claiming that as of yesterday approximately 900 cans were likely still in circulation within the Kingdom.

Lactalis officially began the global recall on Wednesday after French authorities identified 26 cases of children falling sick in France due to salmonella contamination.

Meas Chanerivann, director of Angkor Davann (Cambodia) Import and Export, which holds exclusive import rights for the Lactalis Celia brand, said that his company is recalling two Celia products suspected of salmonella contamination from the Cambodian market.

Of the four Lactalis products Davann imports, only two products – Celia AD (batch No17C0012746) and Celia Mama (batch No17C0012679) – are being recalled in Cambodia, according to Chanerivann.

“Both the factory and my company have the responsibility to solve this problem and we are concerned over consumer health which is our priority,” he said, adding that the company had imported as much as 6,000 cans but only 1,800 had been sold.

The symptoms of salmonella infection include abdominal cramps, diarrhoea and fever. Most people recover without treatment.

A representative who declined to be named from Medex Co Ltd, a company which also has signed an import contract for Lactalis’s Picot brand of infant formula, said that their imported batch numbers were not on the global recall list.

The Ministry of Health could not be reached for comment yesterday to verify if it was aware of the product recall.