Yahoo Movies Baby Formula Shortage Hits Indianapolis Walmart
Footage posted to Instagram on Monday, May 16, showed low stocks of baby formula on the shelves of an Indianapolis Walmart as the Food and Drug Administration worked to ease a nationwide shortage of the staple.
On Monday, the FDA and Abbott Laboratories reached an agreement to reopen a shuttered Abbott facility and resume production of baby formula to ease the shortage.
The Sturgis, Michigan, factory was shut down in February after an investigation into the deaths of two infants led to the discovery of cronobacter, a deadly bacteria, in the formula plant.
The agreement said production would resume “within two weeks,” which would translate to formula on the shelves in “six to eight weeks.”
The FDA said it would also increase “flexibilities regarding importation of certain infant formula products”.
“The FDA is leaving no stone unturned to further increase the availability of infant formula," FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said in a statement. "We are hopeful this call to the global market will be answered and that international businesses will rise to the occasion to assist in bolstering the supply of products that serve as the sole source of nutrition for many infants. With these flexibilities in place, we anticipate that those products that can quickly meet safety and nutrition standards could hit U.S. stores in a matter of weeks.” Credit: @its__simply_janet via Storyful
Video Transcript
- OK. I am taking video of the formula that is at this Walmart. Looks like there's Parent's Choice organic infant formula milk base for $18.48. There is literally only Gerber-- don't know if you use GentlePro. They've got a variety of different cans. Good start, that's SoothePro. So it ranges from $18.78 to about $36.48. There's Gentle, again, from Gerber. There's Gentle Soy. It looks like a lot of those are, let's see, 12.7 ounces for $18.78. There's the small ones. There's plant-based pro protein Good Start. There's [INAUDIBLE] $3.48, Extensive HA $26.47. And, of course, there's no other brand.
