The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) delivered some great news to parents, saying that Abbott Nutrition in Ireland will ship about 35,000 pounds of baby formula to the United States in mid-July.
The federal agency has granted increased flexibility to import baby formula from other countries across the globe to increase the supply in the United States, which is experiencing a nationwide shortage, according to Penn Live.
According to the FDA, Abbott Nutrition will provide 18,677 cans of Similac Advance 2′-FL Stage I formula which is equivalent to 535,000 bottles. FDA said that part of this shipment from Ireland will be reserved to provide for critical needs in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) agencies.
Bellamy's Organic and Global Kosher to provide baby formula to U.S. consumers
The rest of the formula will be distributed to retailers online including Amazon, Target, Walmart, and Abbott Store. The shipment from Ireland is timely as Abbott Nutrition's facility in Sturgis, Michigan, remains closed after suffering damage from severe weather around June 13, 2022.
The FDA revealed earlier this week that Bellamy's Organic of Australia will provide enough baby formula to make 21 million bottles, and Global Kosher in the United Kingdom will provide enough to make 128 million bottles.
The FDA for months has been exercising enforcement discretion for the importation of baby formula from other countries in order to increase the amount of formula that is available in the United States.
The shortage was in part sparked by a national recall of baby formula produced at Abbott Nutrition's Michigan plant which was then shut down for three months. Abbott closed the facility back in February after the FDA started investigating four bacterial infections among infants who consumed powdered formula that was made from the plant.
Two of those babies died. According to the Associated Press, Abbott continues to state that its products have not been directly linked to the said infections, which involved different bacterial strains.
Abbott still experiencing problems with its Michigan plant
Abbott, one of the largest manufacturers of formula in the U.S., recalled Alimentum, EleCare, and Similac powdered infant formulas. That massive recall resulted in empty store shelves across the country with retailers putting limits on how much a person could buy as a result. The supply had already been tight before Abbott's recall because of supply chain issues brought upon by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Abbott was able to restart production on its Michigan plant on June 4 but shut it down again two weeks later because of the aforementioned storm damage. Abbott issued a statement, saying that it will restart EleCare production followed by specialty and metabolic formulas once the plant is re-sanitized.
FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said that they know Abbott is working quickly to assess the damage in the Michigan plant. He added that once the company establishes a plan, the FDA will be back in the plant working to ensure that Abbott can restart producing safe and quality formula products quickly, CNN reported.
