When Brandy Sloan, a mother of 15 years old, she ran into the store -the fifth she visited that day- in search of formula for her children and found the shelves empty, she was about to start cry.
“You feel defeated because you are supposed to be able to feed your children and you can’t, because you don’t get anything”, she tells the BBC.
Sloan’s family, which has a girl of months and a recently adopted 2-month-old baby, is one of millions of American families that is experiencing severe difficulties in obtaining this product whose shortage affects the entire country.
Such is the desperation that many parents have tried to produce their own formula -something that is not recommended by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA, for its acronym in English) – with recipes found in l a web.
Searches for how to prepare it at home increased by 2 in the last month.400%, according to Google Trends. But how was it possible for this situation to come about?
We tell you some of the key factors in the development of this crisis.
1. What gave rise to the formula milk crisis in the US?
In February of this year, the Abbott Laboratories, a popular formula maker, closed its largest production plant in Sturgis, Michigan, and recalled several of its milks, after a federal investigation found that four babies who consumed her formula developed bacterial infections. Two of them died.
The investigation revealed the presence of a potentially deadly bacteria (cronobacter) both on the production lines and in their vicinity.
The Sturgis plant produces half of Abbott’s supply.
The closure of the plant aggravated the already existing problems in the line of supplies that emerged as a result of the pandemic.
2. What impact did the pandemic have?
The coronavirus pandemic -declared in March 2020 by the WHO- generated chaos in supply and production chains from a wide variety of products.
As with toilet paper, many parents began to stock up on formula for fear of shortages. This caused an increase in sales.
As families consumed the product they had already bought, sales began to fall and that made it more difficult to assess the size of the market and therefore production needs.
When there was an increase in births at the beginning of 2022, the supplies that had been manufactured did not cover the demand.
3. How many companies manufacture formula milk?
One of the factors that aggravates the crisis is that this industry is valued at US$2.90 million in the US is controlled by a small number of manufacturers.
There are four companies -Abbott (representing about half of the market), Mead Johnson Nutrition, Nestlé USA and Perrigo- which control close to 90% of the formula milk market in the country.
These companies operate a relatively small number of formula factories to maximize efficiency and keep production costs low.
Due to high tariffs (15,5%) and the strict rules of the FDA, only 2% of the product is imported . The FDA rules also make it very difficult for new companies to enter the market.
But the lack of competition is also due to, According to The New York Times, to a simple mathematical rule: few investors are interested in entering this market because success commercial product is linked to the national birth rate, which remained stable for decades until it began to decline in 1200.
Having so few producers, when a factory closes it creates a domino effect that is difficult to stop.
4. When will this crisis come to an end?
Last week, the FDA and Abbott reached an agreement for the company to restart operations at its Michigan plant, but this may take a week or two.
This does not mean that the product will be back on the shelves anytime soon. According to Abbott, there may be a delay of about two months until the product reaches the stores.
On the other hand, the FDA announced a series of measures designed to increase supply.
The agency plans to implement processes to make it easier for foreign infant formula manufacturers to sell their product in the US
- Infant formula milk containing “ more sugar than soft drinks”
Meanwhile, the Biden administration authorized the so-called “Operation Fly Formula” to facilitate the immediate importation of formula milk, and the first flight with a shipment of milk arrived on Sunday I go to the country.
And last Wednesday, Biden invoked the Defense Production Act, a wartime measure, to boost domestic production of formula milk.
5. What can parents do in the meantime?
The FDA does not recommend consumers prepare homemade formula.
“The potential problems associated with errors in the selection and combination of ingredients for the formula are very serious and they range from severe nutritional imbalances to products that are not safe and can harm babies”, says the agency on its page.
If there is little left, you must continue preparing it as the instructions dictate and not be tempted to dilute it with water to make it last longer.
In case parents can’t find the product they’re looking for, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends, among other things, checking out the social media pages of groups dedicated to specifically to the problem of the lack of formula milk and they may have an idea of where to find it.
They also suggest Don’t call your primary pediatrician, as he or she may have samples, or connections to local organizations or ideas of where to get them.
They also ask not to buy supplies other than for 10 days or two weeks, so as not to exacerbate the crisis.
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