Kids among consumers who fall ill after eating recalled Cocobella yoghurt

Children are among consumers who have suffered severe reactions after eating Cocobella yoghurts, which were recalled last week over undeclared milk.

The popular dairy-free brand initially issued a recall alert on Thursday for pouches of three flavours.

By Saturday, the recall was expanded to include all Cocobella coconut yoghurt products, across all flavours and sizes.

“Any consumers who have a milk allergy or intolerance may have a reaction if the product is consumed,” an alert from Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) said.

However, by the time the recalls were issued, many people had already fallen ill — unaware the yoghurt was to blame.

Dad’s frantic push for recall

When Victorian father Nate fed his two-year-old son a pouch of Cocobella banana yoghurt one ordinary Wednesday afternoon, he never expected it would end in a dash to hospital.

“It was honestly the most traumatic experience of my wife’s and my lives,” Nate told 7NEWS.com.au, asking to go by his nickname only.

Just 30 seconds after eating the yoghurt, the toddler began coughing.

Moments later, Nate heard his wife screaming as their son was showing signs of breathing difficulties.

“He started snorting through his nose to try to get oxygen in. He had hives everywhere, his eyelids and lips were swollen, his whole body was red,” the father recalled.

“At that point, my wife says that she honestly thought that we were about to lose him.”

Suspecting an allergic reaction, they gave him an antihistamine before rushing him to hospital, driving at 100km/h.

Doctors treated his anaphylactic reaction with a shot of adrenaline, which helped him recover slowly over the next four hours.

Nate was certain Cocobella was the cause.

“It was very clear because he had gone to sleep for his daytime nap, and then he woke up, he ate nothing, he drank nothing, except the Cocobella,” he said.

But when Nate asked the hospital to report the incident to Victoria’s Health Department, staff dismissed the suggestion that a dairy-free yoghurt could be to blame and declined to escalate the case.

So he took it into his own hands.

Despite being initially brushed off by the department, he continued calling, and finally received a call back about 7.30am on Thursday.

An officer told him the symptoms did suggest dairy contamination and confirmed an investigation would be launched.

“Six hours later, he called me and said: ‘Thank you so much, you’ve saved lives by notifying us’,” Nate said.

He was told he was the first person to alert the department to the issue.

That afternoon, Food Standards Australia New Zealand issued the first recall alert.

“It’s meant to be a safe food — it’s dairy-free,” Nate said.

“As allergy families, we use it because it’s one of the only dairy replacement foods with high calcium we can safely give our kids. And that’s the food that nearly ended the lives of kids here in Australia.”

Unexpected culprit

Nate was right: other families said they had been affected by the contamination before the recall alerts were issued, and of those many never suspected the “dairy-free” yoghurt could be the cause.

Melbourne mother Grace Kolo had to call an ambulance last Monday for her one-year-old son, who had been eating Cocobella yoghurt every day, unaware it contained traces of dairy.

“In the beginning, for about 30 minutes, 40 minutes, he just kept sneezing, non-stop,” the Caroline Springs mother told 7NEWS.com.au.

She then gave her son some Telfast, thinking it was hay fever, but the symptoms continued to escalate.

He began to cry constantly, became increasingly unsettled, and his existing skin rashes flared up.

Then came the coughing, difficulty swallowing, itchy eyes and shortness of breath.

“It looked like his body was trying to reject what was in there, so I called the ambulance straight away,” Kolo said.

Even when paramedics asked if her son — who is allergic to dairy and egg — had eaten anything that might have triggered a reaction, Kolo didn’t suspect the yoghurt.

“Obviously I said, no, because the yogurt is safe, right? It doesn’t have dairy in it,” she said.

It wasn’t until friends sent her the recall alerts that she realised what had happened.

“I couldn’t believe it — I just couldn’t believe it,” she said.

“When they showed me, I thought, ‘This is why?’ Because we were scratching our heads ...

“It was just insane because it was just out of nowhere. We had no idea what was going on.”

She now suspects the yoghurt may have also caused her son’s ongoing skin flare-ups in the days prior.

A week later, he still had rashes across his body.

Kolo said she would never buy Cocobella again.

“Definitely not, no. Not with a mistake like this,” she said.

“Really disappointed that we’ve put trust in them, and this is what’s happened.

“And not happy that the initial recall was for only two specific dates and then two days later, they recalled everything. So potentially, I could have been giving him more.”

Safe food turns harmful

For 40-year-old Melburnian Billy Jacobs (a nickname), the Cocobella contamination was another devastating blow in an already unimaginable health battle.

Jacobs lives with a severe medical condition caused by vitamin B6 toxicity, which has left him disabled, with widespread organ damage and a compromised gut.

He survives mostly on liquids and mushy foods — and Cocobella yoghurts were one of the few things he considered safe.

“I was relying on that yoghurt to help me try to get calories in and nutrients, but instead it made me sicker,” he told 7NEWS.com.au, only able to communicate via text due to his condition.

“(It caused) more stomach issues, pain, breathing problems, dizzy (and) heavy headaches … nose, throat, chest ...

“I was already suffering, and this just made it 100 times worse. I didn’t know why.”

Jacobs said he had been eating the yoghurt regularly for weeks before stumbling across a Facebook post about the recall — moments after finishing another pouch.

That’s when things started to make sense.

As someone cared for by his elderly mother, he describes life as “a complete struggle” — and now, he says, his health is “rapidly declining”.

He has since stopped eating the yoghurt but said it made his condition significantly worse.

When his digestive system deteriorates, it causes more trouble with breathing, walking, talking — even functioning.

As of Tuesday, Jacobs said he was still feeling the effects.

“The only one that used to taste good was making me feel horrible,” Jacobs said.

Cocobella has offered him a refund and asked for details of any immediate medical costs so it can “review” them — but Jacobs said it’s far from enough.

“It doesn’t save my life,” he said.

Suspiciously severe reaction

A 35-year-old NSW naturopath, who asked to remain anonymous, has raised concerns about the severity of the contamination after reading others’ accounts online.

Being dairy intolerant herself, she experienced nerve pain, brain fog, and what felt like a concussion after eating Cocobella’s vanilla yoghurt for breakfast on both Friday and Saturday.

She was still feeling foggy on Monday, which affected her ability to work.

“Normally I’d need a lot more dairy to create a reaction like that,” she said.

“So I’m just curious how much dairy was in it, and also if there was something else that happened with the contamination.”

A long-time Cocobella customer, she said she wasn’t angry at the brand but was eager to understand what went wrong and what had caused the contamination.

‘We unreservedly apologise’

Cocobella told 7NEWS.com.au on Monday investigations into the cause of the issue were still ongoing.

“While the majority of product lines have tested negative to the allergen, we felt the wider recall was the best course of action to ensure public safety while we continue the investigation,” the company said.

All Cocobella coconut yoghurt products have now been recalled as the company works to determine when the contamination began.

According to Nate, who created a group chat for highly affected parents, multiple families have been impacted after eating the yoghurt.

The company’s social media has been flooded with people who expressed their frustration over the reactions they experienced.

Cocobella confirmed it had received 10 reports of hospital admissions, suspected to be linked to people with a milk allergy consuming one of its yoghurt products.

“We are in touch with all of those who have contacted us, and are thankful everyone affected is now home,” the company said.

“We’re deeply sorry to anyone who has become ill, and are encouraging anyone else with concerns to contact us directly.”

When asked about compensation, the company said: “We apologise unreservedly to anyone who has become ill after consuming one of our products. We are encouraging anyone else with concerns to contact us directly.

“Our priority has been enacting the recall, alerting customers and communicating with impacted consumers directly.

“We unreservedly apologise for any health impacts, concern and inconvenience this has caused.

“We recognise the trust our customers place in us for their dietary and health choices. We are determined to understand how this issue occurred so we can ensure it cannot happen again.”

FSANZ has been contacted for comment.