Japanese food giant, Meiji Co., said it was recalling 400,000 cans of powdered milk for infants after traces of radiation from Japan's hobbled nuclear plant were detected in the formula.
The powdered milk was manufactured in March and April and shipped starting in July with an October 2012 expiry date. The company said it didn't know how many cans had reached consumers already.
The levels of radioactive cesium detected on Tuesday were well below government-set safety limits and the company said the amounts were low enough not to have any effect on babies' health even if they drank the formula every day.
"We are exchanging it so that people can feel their infants are safe," Meiji said in a statement.
"There is no problem because the levels are within the government limit," Kazuhiko Tsurumi, a Health Ministry official in charge of food safety, said.
The March 11 earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan sent three reactors into meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, and they have been emitting radiation into the air and ocean. Some of that radiation has crept into food such as rice, fish and beef.
Airborne radioactive cesium contaminated the milk as it was being dried at a plant in Saitama prefecture in March, according to Meiji.