At a time when the US is facing a significant shortage, a military transport aircraft carried the first cargo infant formula from Europe to help the country. The plane landed yesterday, Sunday, in Indianapolis, while the White House announced that a second flight is planned.
The withdrawal of batches of infant milk made on February 17 by the manufacturer Abbott Laboratories and the closure of its plant in Sturgeon, Michigan, during an investigation by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provoked one of the biggest shortages of baby milk in recent history for American families.
“This is an important step, but it is by no means the only step that needs to be taken. “We will continue to work according to the president’s instructions to identify any available opportunity to increase the supply,” said US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, who welcomed the aircraft after it landed.
“This baby milk is for a very, very small percentage of children. “About 17,000 children in the US will basically benefit from this infant milk,” he said, according to Reuters and the Athens News Agency.
The government of President Joe Biden seeks to supply empty shelves with 1.5 million packages of Nestle special baby milk. The US president cited last week, the special Cold War legislation (Defense Production Act), in order to help increase the available quantities of baby milk.
The White House announced yesterday that a second flight carrying baby milk will depart from Rammstein Air Base in Germany in the coming days. According to the White House, both Abbott and a second company, Reckitt, have been given priority licenses for the supply of raw materials, in accordance with the provisions of the specific legislation mentioned above.
Nestle also announced that more shipments are expected to arrive in the coming days.
Military personnel used forklifts to unload pallets of packaged boxes of baby milk from the plane in Indianapolis onto trucks heading to distribution centers. The White House announced that 35 tons of special baby milk, which covers the needs for 500,000 baby bottles, were transported by flight.
Abbott is the largest baby milk powder company in the United States, and closed its plant in Michigan following reports of bacterial contamination in four babies. This development exacerbated the shortage situation among many infant milk producers, and the problem began with issues arising regarding the proper functioning of the supply chain during the coronavirus pandemic.
Abbott chief executive Robert Ford yesterday apologized for the shortages, assuring that the problem would be resolved, adding that the plant would reopen in the first week of June and that it would take six to eight weeks for the products to reach the shelves. of stores.
“We apologize to every family who has been disappointed by the voluntary recall of our products, which has exacerbated the shortage of baby milk in our country,” he wrote in a comment to The Washington Post.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency yesterday to prevent a rise in the price of baby milk.
“This mandate to declare a state of emergency will help to crack down on any trader who seeks to take advantage of the crisis by raising prices on this key commodity,” Adams said in a statement.
Source: News Beast
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