Despite growing demands for Israeli-manufactured mehadrin Matera baby formula, which is chalav yisrael, America’s Food & Drug Administration (FDA) continues its import ban on the product. The directive from the US governmental body to Nestle/Osem, which manufactures the product, came in May – apparently due to what FDA officials call a product labeling issue. This poses great difficulties for families wishing to feed their infants and children only mehadrin chalav yisrael formulas and cereals, including residents of N. America and visiting Israelis.

The mehadrin baby formula product is in major demand in frum areas around the world, including the United States, Canada, France, the UK, and Belgium.

While the company’s website still lists the United States as one of the countries receiving the product, the FDA has yet to give a green light to resume importing the product.

The FDA website lists the reasons for the “Import Refusal Report” as (1) It appears the food is fabricated from two or more ingredients and the label does not list the common or usual name of each ingredient and (2) The article appears to be misbranded in that the label or labeling fails to bear the required nutrition information.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)