Parents Are Horrified That Their Tommee Tippee Formula Machines Are Full of Mold

From Good Housekeeping

After complaints over its sippy cups and pacifiers, baby product company Tommee Tippee is back in the news again. This time, parents are finding grimy substances inside their Perfect Prep formula machines.

Many moms in the UK have taken to social media, posting pictures of "black mold" lurking in the tubes. The pricey devices heat and dispense water for formula, but some parents worry the gunk sickened their children at every feeding. Some say that their infants' digestive problems disappeared once they stopped using the machines.

What's more, a large number of angry users assert they followed proper care instructions, using the device's own cleaning cycle and buying the official Tommee Tippee filters. "I opened it this morning to find mold in the tubes," one mom wrote on Facebook. "I've descaled and ran the cleaning cycle three times today after finding the mold. After all of this, the mold is still present."

As dissatisfaction continues to swirl online, Tommee Tippee UK released a statement of their own. "We've received comments from parents referring to the internal pipes of their Perfect Prep Machine not being clean. We're concerned by the findings mentioned in the post and are investigating," the company wrote on Facebook this Monday. "To help us do this, we'd like parents who've found similar build-up to contact us as soon as possible, so we can arrange to have your machine and filter returned to us via Freepost for examination."

However, a company spokesman told BBC that the mystery muck might not be mold at all. "The build-up we've seen so far we suspect is carbon residue and not mold. Carbon is a harmless, inert byproduct of the filtration process," he said. "Secondly, some parents have told us they've used ordinary water jug filters instead of the Tommee Tippee filters. Standard filters do not contain the ultra-filtration membrane needed to remove bacteria [and they're] more likely to release carbon into the system."

GoodHousekeeping.com also reached out to Tommee Tippee, and received some additional information. "Tommee Tippee UK did connect with the family who originally shared their concern and found there was some misuse of the product," a spokeswoman wrote via email. "The Perfect Prep Machine is not sold in the U.S."

The company previously carried it in the states, but discontinued the machine due to low demand. The product was sold at Walmart and Babies "R" Us, where it's now listed as out of stock. The Perfect Prep Machine is still available for purchase on Amazon through third party sellers, and American users can find product information on Tommee Tippee's U.S. website.

For more information, Tommee Tippee customers in the United States can call 1-877-248-6922 or contact the company via Facebook. Users in the United Kingdom can call 0500 97 98 99 or read about several FAQs online.

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