Mission Viejo Man Held in Fake Baby Formula Probe

A Mission Viejo man was arrested Friday in an investigation of counterfeit Similac baby formula that turned up on Northern California store shelves last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said.

Ivy K. Ong, 52, was arrested on suspicion of trafficking in counterfeit goods, and a warrant was out for a second person, the FDA said in a news release.

The counterfeit manufacturing operation was also seized, the FDA said. Three search warrants were served in Southern California and one in Maryland. The locations were not revealed.

No details of the arrest were released, said FDA spokesman Jim O’Hara in Rockville, Md.

“The investigation is ongoing,” O’Hara said, and may involve other individuals.

The FDA said consumers should not use the counterfeit product, which was still undergoing evaluation of its safety and nutrition.

“The inspections and tests on the product do not indicate parents should be concerned, but there have been reports of adverse reactions that are being investigated,” the FDA statement said.

The manufacturer of Similac, Abbott Laboratories of North Chicago, praised the FDA’s investigators for swift action.

“We are pleased the case appears to be solved,” said a statement from Tom McNally, senior vice president of Abbott’s Ross Products Division.

“There’s nothing more important to new parents than ensuring that the formula they feed their babies is the highest quality. And there’s nothing more important to us than ensuring the integrity of our product,” he said.

The FDA said 38,000 pounds of the fake product were seized before distribution. Another 6,366 one-pound cans were recovered from retail and wholesale outlets.

The FDA said it believed all the bogus Similac has been removed from retail shelves, and there was no evidence it was distributed outside California.

Counterfeit labels and canning and manufacturing supplies and equipment were among the items seized in the investigation, the FDA said.

The counterfeit operation involved purchase of bulk infant formula from a legitimate manufacturer who sold the bulk formula labeled “for export only” to a Southern California wholesaler, the FDA said.

The fake Similac showed up on Safeway grocery store shelves in Northern California last week.

It was packaged to resemble Similac powdered infant formula with iron in 16-ounce cans, right down to an identification number copied from the real thing.

The cans are labeled “Similac with iron, powder.” The bottom of each can bears the lot number 87532RB APR96 0341 87532RB APR96.

Consumers can tell the fake formula from the real thing by the counterfeit product’s clear scoop and milky white appearance, the FDA said. Similac is creamy yellow and has a green scoop.

Safeway removed cans with the suspicious lot number from its Northern California stores Feb. 1.