- Danone is sending specialist, amino acid-based baby formula to the US.
- The food manufacturer is sending enough formula for 5 million bottles to help combat shortages.
- The ongoing shortages have impacted the availability of formula made for babies with dairy allergies.
French food giant Danone, is flying specialist formula designed for infants with allergies to cow's milk or other health conditions to the US to help ease the burden of ongoing formula shortages.
The Food and Drug Administration said in a statement last week that enough formula for 5 million bottles would be sent to the US to address the scarcity of specialized formula.
Danone did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
The recent shortages are mainly linked to product recalls from the manufacturer Abbott Nutrition and have seen parents struggling to secure tins of their preferred formula.
The manufacturer recalled several lots of formula and shuttered its plant in Sturgis, Michigan, in February after complaints of bacterial infections in four infants who consumed formula produced there emerged. Speaking at the House Subcommittee on Energy and Commerce last Wednesday, the US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf said the FDA could not link bacteria found at Abbott's plant on investigation directly to the infections, but said conditions at the plant were "egregiously unsanitary" and had allowed bacteria to spread.
In a statement sent to Insider earlier this month, Abbott said there was "no conclusive evidence" linking the formulas to the illnesses, but that it would strive to regain consumers' trust and focus on resuming production at the plant in early June, starting with lots of its specialist amino acid-based EleCare formula.
The recalls have affected the availability of formula designed for infants with dairy allergies and other health conditions since many products in Abbott's EleCare line were involved in the recalls and were produced at the closed factory.
Danone said its specialist formula produced by its Nutricia brand would arrive in the US from its factory in Liverpool, UK, by the end of June, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a spokesperson for the company.
The manufacturer's move to ramp up deliveries to the US comes as other manufacturers are also sending products their as part of Operation Fly Formula, a program launched by President Biden on May 18 to bring more formula meeting FDA standards into the country.
Under the plan, deliveries of hypoallergenic formulas designed for infants with dairy allergies are being prioritized because they "serve a critical medical purpose and are in short supply in the United States," according to a statement from The White House.
The first delivery of hypoallergenic formulas made by Nestlé arrived in the US on May 22.
