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Infant baby formula product shortage. Empty Similac baby food shelves at an American grocery store supermarket - Biden - Defense Production Act
(Photo Credit: The Toidi/Shutterstock)

Biden Baby Formula Defense Production Act Order Overview: 

  • Who: President Biden invoked the Defense Production Act (DPA) to help expedite ending a nationwide baby formula shortage. 
  • Why: The DPA will require suppliers to direct needed resources to baby formula manufacturers before any other customers.
  • Where: The baby formula shortage is nationwide.

President Joe Biden has invoked the Defense Production Act in an effort to ensure baby formula manufacturers have the ingredients they need to produce a “safe” and “healthy” product amid a nationwide baby formula shortage. 

Invoking the DPA will require suppliers to “direct needed resources to infant formula manufacturers before any other customer who may have ordered that good,” according to a White House news release

“Today’s steps further underscore the Administration’s commitment to addressing the formula shortage quickly and safely, and the Administration will continue working overtime to get more formula to stores as soon as possible,” the White House said. 

The Biden administration also directed manufacturing firms to “prioritize” and “allocate” the production of “key infant formula inputs,” which it says will help increase production and speed up supply chains. 

Additionally, Biden directed the Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to use Department of Defense-owned commercial aircrafts to retrieve infant formula from overseas. 

Biden to Expedite Process of Importing Overseas Baby Formula 

In what is being called Operation Fly Formula, infant formula that passes U.S. health and safety standards will be brought from outside the country and reach shelves faster because it will bypass “regular air freighting routes,” according to the White House.

The United States has experienced a baby formula shortage to varying degrees since Abbott Nutrition was forced to close its Sturgis, Michigan, manufacturing plant in February.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ordered Abbott to close the plant so the FDA could investigate the source of a bacterial contamination that led to the death of two babies who had consumed Abbott’s Similac PM 60/40 formula.

The FDA and Abbott came to an agreement earlier this week that will allow Abbott to reopen its Sturgis plant so long as it follows a set of guidelines, including hiring an outside expert to ensure they properly implement new health and safety guidelines.

Abbott’s plant will only be allowed to reopen once the FDA determines the necessary changes and upgrades have been made and gives the OK.

Once the plant is reopened, Abbott says it will take six to eight weeks for its formula to reach supermarket shelves, according to court documents. 

Abbott began releasing specialty infant formula on a “case-by-case” basis earlier this month after the FDA determined not having certain products on the market could endanger the health of babies that relied on them.

Have you been affected by the nationwide baby formula shortage? Let us know in the comments!


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2 thoughts onBiden Invokes Defense Production Act To Increase Baby Formula Production, Shipment

  1. Terri says:

    Please add me

  2. F$J$B says:

    It’s much too late for him to have acted! He is unfit to govern!!!!

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