Abbott Laboratories, the leading baby formula company, was forced to close its Michigan plant on Wednesday amid baby formula shortage.
The company said its plant, which had only reopened on June 4, was overwhelmed by “severe thunderstorms and heavy rains” that caused “power outages and flood damage throughout” Sturgis, causing widespread flooding.
“As a result, Abbott has stopped production of its EleCare specialty formula that was underway to assess damage caused by the storm and clean and re-sanitize the plant,” Abbott Labs said in a statement. “This will likely delay production and distribution of new product for a few weeks.”
Last April, Abbott Labs recalled their products following the death of two Michigan infants after reportedly consuming formula made by the manufacturer.
“A thorough review of all available data indicates that the infant formula produced at our Sturgis facility is not likely the source of infection in the reported cases and that there was not an outbreak caused by products from the facility,” the company said in a statement.
This comes as baby formula shortage continues to get worse across the U.S. with many parents struggling to find supplies to feed their newborns.
“If the [mainstream media] can talk about the toilet paper shortage ever (sic) hour, they should be talking about the baby formula shortage at least,” one mom tweeted. “We ended [up] finding the Amazon brand online but not everyone is so lucky to be able to feed that. Please share. This is every store!”
To combat the shortage, 78,000 pounds worth of formula from Europe were transported to the U.S. last month as part of President Joe Biden’s “Operation Fly Formula.”
“Folks, I’m excited to tell you that the first flight from Operation Fly Formula is loaded up with more than 70,000 pounds of infant formula and about to land in Indiana,” Biden tweeted. “Our team is working around the clock to get safe formula to everyone who needs it.”
The shipment was the first of many flights of formula approved by the president that are headed to the U.S. from Europe. 132 pallets of Nestlé Health Science Alfamino Infant and Alfamino Junior formula are expected to arrive in the coming days, said the White House.
