The White House announced new actions Thursday to make baby formula more available, as a major shortage leaves parents struggling to find food for their infants due to inflation, supply chain issues and the closing of an Abbott Laboratories facility due to alleged links between formula produced there and deadly bacterial infections in young children.
There is a baby formula shelf with a limited supplies sign on it. This photo was taken by Rick Bowmer.
According to the White House, President Joe Biden spoke with formula manufacturers and retailers Thursday and discussed ways to make formula more available to parents.
About half of all formula in the US is purchased with the help of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children.
The White House says that the USDA is encouraging states to relax requirements that retailers keep a certain amount of formula in stock, as well as allowing companies to manage their inventories to meet demand.
The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission will devote more resources to monitoring price gouging and predatory behavior in the infant formula market, following reports individuals are purchasing formula and selling it online for several times the listed price.
The White House is working with international trading partners to get more formula from overseas.
According to the White House, the FDA will announce steps it is taking to import the formula in the coming days.
42%. Datasembly, which tracks product data for retailers, reported that the nationwide out-of-stock percentage for baby formula was over 50% during the first week of May. At the start of April, the percentage was 30%.
The shortage of infant formula is caused by supply chain issues from the Covid-19 Pandemic and rising inflation, but the shuttering of an Abbott Laboratories facility in Michigan in February worsened the limited supplies. According to Euromonitor, Abbott and the maker of Enfamil accounted for 80% of baby formula sales. The FDA warned consumers not to purchase some formula produced in the facility on February 17 as it investigated reports that several children who contracted serious bacterial infections from Cronobacter sakazakii andSalmonella had links to the formula. According to the FDA, cronobacter may have been a factor in the deaths of two children. The plant was closed after Abbott issued a voluntary recall and the FDA warned about it. In March, the FDA released preliminary findings of its investigation, and found a history of contamination with the cronobacterbacteria, and a failure to maintain clean surfaces used in handling and producing the formula. The FDA noted in a statement that there were a limited number of samples tested, but Abbott said in a statement that there were no positive results for cronobacter or salmonella.
The FDA began inspecting the Michigan facility months before the recall was issued, after a former Abbott employee sent them concerns about the facility. The FDA did not interview the whistle blower until late December, raising questions about how long it took the FDA to respond to the claims.
Baby Formula Shortage: How Safety Concerns At An Abbott Facility Fueled A Crisis.
The Wall Street Journal reported that baby formula shortages could last months.
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