The baby formula shortage has been quietly snowballing into a crisis for months. Abbott Nutrition, the main provider of powdered infant formula to the US market, issued a recall of formulas from its factory in Michigan. Two babies died from infections traced to the plant.
The supply chain was already strained by the recall. The Food and Drug Administration and Abbott reached an agreement on steps to reopen the plant. It will take months to ramp up production even though the company says it can get the plant operating at full capacity in a couple of weeks. The root cause of the contamination could take a few months, and neither the FDA nor Abbott has been able to find out why.
Babies can wait months. Out of desperation, many parents are turning to social media to find formula. It is dangerous to watch videos about how to make homemade versions. Despite warnings from the FDA, the recipes for homemade formula are still being shared online. The videos MIT Technology Review saw on TikTok have gotten thousands of views.
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