“Look, this is a priority, it continues to be a priority for us,” she said. “We’re going to do everything that we can to increase production. But, again, we want to make sure that the safety is first.”
Biden Baby Formula Shortage Worsens As Time Goes On
Darian Douraghy
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Jul 20, 2022
What are American parents who are reliant on baby food expected to do? The United States baby formula shortage under the rule of Joe Biden has worsened in recent weeks in spite of the administration’s decision to fly in millions of packets of formula across the world over the past two months.
A piece from the New York Post analyzed data from the market research firm IRI, which reported that 28.3% of powdered baby formula products were out of stock at US stores in the week ending July 10. This is higher than the 23.7% found to be missing from shelves in the week ending May 22 — the same week the shortage received massive media coverage.
BLP covered the story at the time:
Figures reported last week were worse, with the percentage at 29.5%, the highest peak this year.
A total of 48 flights have been dispatched to send baby formula to United States consumers as of July 17th, claims the Biden administration.
The White House announced Monday that an additional two flights containing 800,000 eight-ounce bottles worth of Nestlé Health Science Alfamino Infant and Alfamino Junior formula will arrive to the United States from Switzerland on Thursday and Friday.
It appears these imports will not satisfy the typical purchase habits of American parents who typically shop for baby formula. According to The Post, the aforementioned flights would bring the total number of imported eight-ounce bottle equivalents from Operation Fly Formula to more than 61 million by July 24 — around 4 million fewer than American consumers typically purchase weekly, per IRI.
“This idea that some publicist in the White House came up with was really meant to impress people with the administration’s concern,” said Joseph Antos, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. “But it’s pretty much a drop in the bucket compared to what would normally be imported if we had regular imports of baby formula from anywhere else. We don’t … because there is a very large tariff barrier … [and] the other factor, of course, is FDA rules. FDA really makes it very difficult.”
Antos additionally told The Post that shortages of baby food would likely remain consistent “for the next couple of months” at least.
“It takes a while to refill the supply chain,” he explained. “Even when you’re not crossing the ocean, we still have a supply chain problem in this country.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to answer Monday when she thought the stock might return to normal.
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