[NTDBeijingtimeMay192022]Since Abbott Laboratories in the United States received a complaint of bacterial infection of infant milk powder, and recalled the formula milk powder in February, it encountered a bottleneck in the supply chain, causing a serious shortage of infant milk powder. question. The White House said on May 18 that the government will airfreight infant formula on business charter flights leased by the military to alleviate the problem of severe shortages.
The shortage of milk powder in the United States has not only made American parents more and more anxious, but has also become a political problem for President Biden before the November midterm elections.
To remove production bottlenecks, the White House said the Department of Defense “will use its contracts with commercial cargo airlines to comply with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as it did with the various paraphernalia in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. The milk powder is shipped back from foreign manufacturers with safety standards.”
The White House dubbed the operation “Operation Fly Formula,” and said: “Bypassing conventional air routes will expedite the import and distribution of milk powder, providing immediate support while manufacturers continue to ramp up production.”
Biden also resorted to the Defense Production Act to remove production bottlenecks, requiring suppliers to give priority to milk powder manufacturers.
The shortage of milk powder in the United States was initially caused by disrupted supply chains and labor shortages due to the epidemic; in February, manufacturer Abbott Laboratories announced a “voluntary recall” of products from its Michigan plant after the deaths of two babies. And closing the plant has exacerbated the shortage.
Subsequent investigations clarified the problem with the milk powder. The US Food and Drug Administration and Abbott reached an agreement on the 16th of this month to resume production, but it will take several weeks before it hits store shelves.
U.S. infant formula consumption is 98 percent dependent on domestic manufacturers. The average out-of-stock rate for formula earlier this month reached 43 percent, according to data from more than 11,000 retailers, obtained by real-time data tracker Datasembly.
Biden wrote to the heads of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), saying that imported milk powder “will serve as a bridge to increase production.” “I therefore ask you to take all appropriate and feasible measures to import more safe milk powder immediately.”
The shortage of milk powder has made many parents anxious, worried that their children will starve to death. Milk powder is a necessity for many families, especially low-income families, where mothers have to return to work almost immediately after giving birth and are unable to breastfeed. In addition, there is also the problem of soaring spot milk powder prices.
Reckitt Benckiser and Nestle said on the 16th that they have accelerated their supply to the United States in order to solve the shortage of goods that have been swept away and caused panic among parents.
Before Abbott’s recall, Reckitt Benckiser had just over a third of the U.S. infant formula market, while Abbott had about 44%. U.K.-based RB now accounts for more than 50 percent of the total U.S. infant formula supply, the company told Reuters.
Nestlé said in a statement on the 17th that it was shipping infant formula to the United States from the Netherlands and Switzerland.
(Editor in charge: Lu Yongxin)
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