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Jul 11, 2023

Why some types of baby formula are still hard to find on store shelves

Leave your feedback The national baby formula shortage began after safety concerns forced the shutdown of a major supplier's flagship plant. The company, Abbott Labs, has since reopened the plant, and

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The national baby formula shortage began after safety concerns forced the shutdown of a major supplier's flagship plant. The company, Abbott Labs, has since reopened the plant, and the White House has tried to alleviate supply chain logjams. But almost nine months later, parents are still struggling to find some brands of formula. Ali Rogin spoke with journalist Helena Bottemiller to learn more.

John Yang:

The National baby formula shortage began after safety concerns forced the shutdown of a major supplier's flagship plant. That company Abbott Labs has since reopened the plant and the White House has tried to alleviate supply chain log jams. But as Ali Rogin reports, almost nine months later, parents are still struggling to find some brands of baby formula.

Ali Rogin:

Statistics show that formula stocks are almost back to where they were before the crisis began. But ask most parents of young children if they're now easily able to find their preferred brand, and you're likely to get a mixed response.

So how is it the baby formula needs are still not being met? Here to discuss that is journalist Helena Bottemiller Evich, who runs the Food Fix Newsletter. Helena, you've been tracking these numbers very closely, but you've also been doing a lot of anecdotal research in stores, and we're not seeing the stocks on the shelves match what the statistics seem to be bearing out. How do you explain that discrepancy?

Helena Bottemiller Evich, Author, Food Fix Newsletter:

Yeah, it's one of the most confusing things I've ever covered. So, I mean, the good news is it's getting better. We have enough formula to feed all of our babies. We have enough calories. So, the volume is there. So that's the good news.

But that said, as you mentioned, a lot of parents are still seeing shelves that look pretty bad. It is not hard to find barren shelves. Even my local grocery store, which is about two miles from the capital itself, has been maybe 50% stocked throughout this situation. So, I think when parents see an infant formula section that looks, you know, largely empty, it also encourages them to buy more. It's a normal human response.

And so, I think until the formula sections look better, we're going to see, you know, stress from parents and also some over buying, frankly.

Ali Rogin:

So, what formula are we seeing on the shelves and what formula isn't quite back to where it was prior to this crisis?

Helena Bottemiller Evich:

So right now, the IRI worldwide retail data, which is sort of the gold standard, that data shows that we're 87% in stock right now on average. Most parents would tell you they're not exactly experiencing that. And that is because a lot of the variety has come down a lot. So, infant formula makers are actually making far fewer types of formula to try to be more efficient to meet volumes and sort of meet this disrupted moment we're in. That kind of helps parents understand, you know, you're seeing way less variety and you're not seeing as much of the particular brand or type that you might be looking for. And I think that makes it feel like a shortage, even though we have enough.

Ali Rogin:

Right. Now, a big contributor to the shortage was Abbott Labs, which controls about 40% of market share. It closed its biggest facility in Sturgis, Michigan. That facility reopened in July following the recall. How much did that affect the shortages that we have been seeing?

Helena Bottemiller Evich:

Yeah, I think there's no question that the massive recall in February made the situation very disrupted and a lot worse. But I'm actually convinced that we would have had some level of shortage even without that recall, because stocks were starting to get off before that, months before that. And so certainly, though, if you shut down the largest, you know, manufacturing plant for infant formula in the country, that plant was responsible for about 20% of infant formula production. It's going to be really disruptive. And the good news is we are back to producing more infant formula than we were before that shut down. But everyone I've talked to is really surprised this has gone on this long.

If you had asked me in May, would store shelves still look disrupted in the fall, in the winter, I would have said absolutely not. This will get worked out. And so, the fact that they still look quite bad in many places is shocking to a lot of people.

Ali Rogin:

Let's talk really quick about the White House's actions here. They've taken a number of them, operation fly formula. They were flying in formula from overseas. They invoked the Defense Production Act. They opened up the market to some foreign manufacturers. How have those things helped or not?

Helena Bottemiller Evich:

Yeah, I think all of those things have helped. You know, they put in a lot of new policies in place to, as you mentioned, you know, get more imported formula on store shelves before this crisis. 98% of formula that we consumed in the U.S. was domestically produced. So, if all of a sudden you knock out a big part of your processing, it's not like we can seamlessly bring it in from other countries. So, we have made it easier to get imports on the shelves. Those formula flights have actually brought in almost 100 million servings of formula. So, it's been, I think, a significant impact. But again, going back to the fact that we are eight months into this and store shelves still look bad in many places, I think tells us that more needs to be done and we are not out of this yet.

Ali Rogin:

Bottom line, Helena, does anybody have an idea of when this is going to end and things get truly back to normal?

Helena Bottemiller Evich:

I really don't know. Every time a Biden administration official has tried to predict when this is going to end, they have been wrong and it has still been an issue far past the deadline they have set. So, I really don't know. I think, you know, best case scenario into next year, into early next year. We'll still see some disruption, but hopefully it will get better and better because this has been really stressful for a lot of parents.

Ali Rogin:

Helena Bottemiller Evich, who dominates the formula beat and runs the Food Fix Newsletter, thank you so much for your time.

Helena Bottemiller Evich:

Thanks for having me.

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