Experts question whether U.S. military can make a dent in baby formula shortage

Experts are questioning whether having the U.S. military haul hundreds of thousands of pounds of baby formula from Europe to America can make a dent in the critical shortage.  

On Wednesday, first lady Jill Biden and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy were at Dulles International Airport to meet the second military flight carrying infant formula from overseas.  

The symbolic gesture, part of “Operation Fly Formula”  — the program President Biden launched last week to expedite shipments of formula to mitigate the national shortage — may be more of a sign than a solution, said Peter Pitts, a former associate commissioner at the Food and Drug Administration.  

“On the one hand, it’s political theater because the president wants to be seen to be doing something — and so I appreciate that — [but] its actual impact is limited,” said Pitts. 

The U.S. military on Sunday delivered the first shipment of baby formula from Switzerland to Indiana to help alleviate the nationwide shortage, largely caused by supply chain issues and recent recalls of several products over contamination concerns. 

“Our team is working around the clock to get safe formula to everyone who needs it,” Biden tweeted alongside photos of the cargo, noting that it weighed more than 70,000 pounds.  

The shipment, which included three types of formula for children allergic to cow milk proteins, accounts for about 15 percent of needed specialty formula, with more on the way, according to National Economic Council director Brian Deese.   

And Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the shipment would provide enough formula to feed 9,000 babies and 18,000 toddlers for a week.  

The second shipment on Wednesday, to be distributed from a Nestlé facility in Pennsylvania, weighed 100,000 pounds and is expected up the total formula supply to the equivalent of 1.5 million eight-ounce bottles.  

But the two shipments alone are not enough to quell demand, Nada Sanders, a professor of supply chain management at Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business, told The Hill. 

“I did not see this as this gesture as much as I saw that the only way it could possibly have any meaning is to actually be the beginning of a number of shipments that would be coming,” Sanders said, noting that the combined 170,000 pounds of formula is “nothing” to quell current demand and the military would need to facilitate “many more” of the flights. 

“However, it’s my understanding that this is just going to be the beginning,” she added. 

Pitts, who is now president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, also said the specific, hypoallergenic type of formula delivered in the first and second shipment – though important – will do little to mitigate the limited supply availability across the board.   

“I think if the president had said, you know, this is not the solution to the problem, but it’s something we can do right now for those infants most at risk, I think that would have been [better] than a grand announcement that’s going to have significant but limited impact for the majority of American parents,” he said.   

The Biden administration has scrambled to fix a major shortage that seemed to catch it by surprise.  

Jill Biden on Wednesday said “there’s more to do,” to address the crisis, and said the shipments “are only one part of the strategy.” 

“I am here today to say to parents: You aren’t alone,” she said in remarks. “At the highest levels of Joe’s Administration, he and his team understand what you are going through. They won’t stop until every parent can get the formula their child needs.”  

And FDA Commissioner Robert Califf on Thursday estimated that “within two months” formula supply in America “should be beyond normal.”  

Sanders, however, predicted it would take upwards of three months to get production back on track and alleviate the shortage. 

“I think the best-case scenario, if . . . everything was functioning perfectly, it would really take two to three months to get the production process, deliveries to be functioning,” she said. 

The U.S. formula market is largely controlled by four manufacturers: Abbott, Mead Johnson Nutrition, Nestle USA and Perrigo. The companies make 90 percent of the infant formula sold in the U.S., with Abbott taking the lion’s share at 40 percent.   

A recall and closure at Abbott’s facility in Michigan this year threw a wrench into the U.S. supply chain, which was already strained since 2021 by supply chain shortages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Another issue, Sanders pointed out, is supplies of a major ingredient in some formulas, sunflower seed oil, has been hampered by Russia’s attack on Ukraine.   

About 50 percent of the world’s supply of the oil comes from Russia and Ukraine, she explained, and if the shortage continues, “we could end up with another thing that is slowing down availability of formula because substituting ingredients in baby food is not something that you can do on the fly.” 

In addition to the military shipments, Biden last week invoked the Defense Production Act (DPA), a Cold War–era law that gives the commander-in-chief major emergency authority to control domestic industries.  

Pitt, however, said the DPA enactment was largely a symbol, as the act isn’t meant to facilitate the delivery of already made formula from outside the U.S. into the country.  

“What the Defense Production Act does is prioritize delivery to baby formula manufacturers all the ingredients that they need, and those ingredients are largely corn syrup, rice, starch, and protein derived from cow’s milk commodities,” he told The Hill.  

“Not one serving of baby formula has been delayed because of ingredients supply chain issues with those companies.” 

He added that the act “hasn’t been necessary,” but could be in the future if there are shortages in ingredients.  

“But you’re dealing with commodities of which there are no shortage. . . this country has enough corn syrup to to fill the Atlantic Ocean.”