Helena Bottemiller Evich, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Food Fix, explains in Fox Business Tonight how parents still struggle to find baby food.
The Justice Department is investigating Abbott Laboratories’ Michigan baby food plant, which was at the center of a nationwide food shortage that was plaguing millions of families, The Wall Street Journal reports.
In May, Abbott reached an agreement with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to reopen the company’s Sturgis, Michigan manufacturing facility to alleviate a nationwide baby formula shortage after the facility was shut down due to bacterial contamination.
Baby food shelves are pictured at Skippack Pharmacy with a buyer’s limit amid ongoing nationwide shortages in Schwenksville, Pennsylvania, the United States, June 2, 2022. (Portal Photos)
Shelves normally stocked with baby food stand mostly empty at a store in San Antonio on Tuesday, May 10, 2022. Parents in the US are desperate for baby formula as supply disruptions and a massive safety recall have overwhelmed many leaders (AP Photo/Eric Gay / AP Newsroom)
FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said Abbott, under the terms of the agreement, will correct unsanitary conditions that led to the contamination and closure of the facility.
“The DOJ has notified us of its investigation, and we are fully cooperating,” an Abbott spokesman told the Wall Street Journal.
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The investigation signals another review of Abbott’s operations at the facility, a major source of baby food in the United States
A manufacturing facility from Abbott Laboratories is shown September 23, 2010 in Sturgis, Michigan. (Brandon Watson/Sturgis Journal via AP/AP Newsroom)
Yury Navas, 29, of Laurel, Md., kisses her two-month-old baby Jose Ismael Gálvez at the Superbest International Market in Laurel, Md., Monday, May 23, 2022 while she searches for formula. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin/AP Newsroom)
Last January, FDA inspectors found the Cronobacter pathogen at the facility after receiving reports of babies who drank the company’s formula and got sick. The bacteria found in the stash found led to at least four infant illnesses — including two deaths.
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At the Sturgis plant, inspectors found standing water, damage to drying equipment and defects in the seams of formula cans, among other things.
A woman shops for baby formula at Target in Annapolis, Maryland on May 16, 2022 as a nationwide shortage of baby formula continues due to supply chain shortages related to the coronavirus pandemic that have already strained the country’s formula inventory (Photo by Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images)
In a 10-page report released in September, the FDA found that the conditions observed at Abbott’s facility “were not consistent with a strong culture of food safety.”
Abbott temporarily halted production at the Sturgis factory in February and recalled baby formula made at the plant.
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The move sparked a nationwide formula shortage, forcing the US to ship millions of pounds of formula powder overseas.