Australian chef Pete Evans’ new cookbook has been put on hold after public health officials determined that its recipes could be fatal to infants. The “Bubba Yum: The Paleo Way For New Mums, Babies and Toddlers” was co-authored by the “My Kitchen Rules” judge.

The Australian Women’s Weekly reports that a group of health organisations have expressed their concerns over the DIY baby formula found in the book. The said formula is based on liver and bone broth, and contains no milk products. The book claims that it “mimics the nutrient profile of breast milk” and is a “wonderful alternative” to breast milk.

Professor Heather Yeatman, the president of the Public Health Association of Australia, said the formula is feared to cause a baby’s death. Public Health Association of Australia chief executive Michael Moore also said that there’s a “very real possibility that a baby may die if this book goes ahead.”

“In my view, there’s a very real possibility that a baby may die if this book goes ahead,” Yeatman told AWW. “Especially if [the DIY formula] was the only food a parent was feeding their infant, it’s a very real risk. And [I consider that] the baby’s growth and development could be impaired.”

The experts concluded that the DIY formula contains ten times the safe maximum daily intake of vitamin A for babies. The Department of Health has already been alerted, with a spokeswoman saying it is closely scrutinising the book and investigating further. The department is “concerned about the inadequate nutritional values of some of the foods, in particular for infants.”

Australian National University health and economics expert Julie Smith also believes the claim that the DIY formula is the next best thing to breast milk is “false and misleading.” She said the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission should look at the claim.

“The commercial publisher aims to make money out of this book and I suspect they would have to consider very carefully the investigation that would ensue if they published it,” she was quoted by GoodFood as saying.

The book was co-written by paleo diet advocate Evans with baby recipe blogger Charlott Carr and naturopath Helen Padarin. It was scheduled to be released on Friday by Pan MacMillan.

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