The infants consumed four different types of our formula made over the course of nearly a year and the illnesses took place over several months in three different states.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n“The FDA concluded its inspection with a 483 letter to Abbott on March 18. This is a list of observations that point out where Abbott did not follow our processes and where we can improve our systems and protocols,” the release stated. \u201cWe take this very seriously and we responded to the 483 on April 8. Even before our formal response, we had begun working to address these issues, implement improvements and take corrective action. Some of these actions have included reviewing and updating education, training and safety procedures for both employees and visitors, as well as updating our protocols regarding water and cleaning and maintenance procedures at the facility. We immediately implemented corrections to address the items the FDA raised in the 483. We’ve also been making upgrades to the plant, including installing nonporous, easily cleanable and sanitary floors. “<\/p>\n\n
For now, pediatricians and health workers are urging parents who can’t find formula to contact food banks or doctor’s offices. They warn against watering down formula to stretch supplies or using online DIY recipes.<\/p>\n
“For babies who are not being breastfed, this is the only thing they eat,” said Dr. Steven Abrams, of the University of Texas, Austin. “So it has to have all of their nutrition and, furthermore, it needs to be properly prepared so that it’s safe for the smallest infants. “<\/p>\n
Trying to keep formula in stock, retailers including CVS and Walgreens have begun limiting purchases to three containers per customer.<\/p>\n
Nationwide about 40% of large retail stores are out of stock, up from 31% in mid-April, according to Datasembly, a data analytics firm. More than half of US states are seeing out-of-stock rates between 40% and 50%, according to the firm, which collects data from 11,000 locations.<\/p>\n
Baby formula is particularly vulnerable to disruptions because only a few companies account for almost the entire US supply.<\/p>\n
Industry executives say the constraints began last year as the COVID-19 pandemic led to disruptions in ingredients, labor and transportation. Supplies were squeezed further by parents stockpiling during lockdowns.<\/p>\n
Abbott said it is increasing production at its other facilities to fill the gap, including air-shipping formula from a plant in Ireland.<\/p>\n
The shortages are especially dangerous for infants who require specialty formulas due to food allergies, digestive problems and other conditions.<\/p>\n
“Unfortunately, many of those very specialized formulas are only made in the United States at the factory that had the recall, and that’s caused a huge problem for a relatively small number of infants,” Abrams said.<\/p>\n\n
After hearing concerns from parents, FDA said last month that Abbott could begin releasing some specialty formulas not affected by the recalls \u201con a case-by-case basis.” The company is providing them free of charge, in coordination with physicians and hospitals.<\/p>\n
Food safety advocates say FDA made the proper call in releasing the formula, but that parents should talk to their pediatrician before using it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s still some risk from the formula because we know there are problems at the plant and FDA hasn’t identified a root cause,\u201d said Sarah Sorscher of Center for Science in the Public Interest. “But it’s worth releasing because these infants might die without it.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Parents throughout the US are scrambling to find baby formula because of supply disruptions and a massive safety recall from Abbott Nutrition in regard to its Sturgis manufacturing facility. Months of spot shortages at pharmacies and supermarkets have been exacerbated by the recall at Abbott, which was forced to shutter its Sturgis facility – the …<\/p>\n
Abbott: Sturgis facility could restart within two weeks<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2022\/03\/23\/NSTJ\/fefcd2ab-683f-4fe3-bcbc-5630c3846a52-AP22081825337725.jpg?ssl=1","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2022\/03\/23\/NSTJ\/fefcd2ab-683f-4fe3-bcbc-5630c3846a52-AP22081825337725.jpg?width=660&height=412&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13907"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}