Posted on 05/16/2022 4:00:08 PM PDT by blam
Infant formula maker Abbott says it's reached an agreement with U.S. health officials to restart production at its largest domestic factory, a key step toward easing a nationwide shortage tied to the plant’s shutdown earlier this year.
Abbott did not immediately detail the terms of the agreement reached with the Food and Drug Administration, which has been investigating safety problems at the Sturgis, Michigan, facility. The consent decree is a binding legal agreement between the company and the federal government.
After production resumes, Abbott has said it will take at least eight weeks to begin shipping new product to stores.
The Biden administration has come under intense pressure over the last week to do more to ease the shortage of formula that has forced parents of infants to go to significant lengths to feed their children.
Abbott’s plant came under scrutiny earlier this year after four infants became sick with bacterial infections after consuming powdered formula from the Michigan factory. Two of the babies died.
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
In the FWIW department, some of that 8 week delay is aging product then testing samples of it for bacteria.
Oh Thank Goodness, the Government is here to save the day!!! I wonder how much longer they would have delayed if news of the shuttered plant hadn’t gone viral. FJB
Nothing like national embarrassment to light a fire under lazy, worthless, cowardly bureaucrat tushes.
More perspective on the infant deaths. Abott Labs was not the source of the bacteria.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/05/our-reckless-white-house.php
Abbott produces nearly all of the special formulas in the US. They produce about 40% of the total formula in the US.
“After production resumes, Abbott has said it will take at least eight weeks to begin shipping new product to stores.”
Probably better to use trucks than horse and buggy to ship the formula, but perhaps they’re worried about diesel?
“..Is there only one baby formula factory?...”
Naaa...the others are most likely already under federal control/orders to ship to the Ukraine and the illegal aliens at the border...America Last....and they didn’t forget 10% for the big guy like this plant probably did.
Switch auto Amazon Canada
Enfamil is available
The Abbott CEO has been trying to get the FDA to inspect for weeks. Biden admin just got caught dragging their feet.
Biden got his 10%.
I wonder if the Abbotts were short handed because they were firing not-shot workers. Maybe maintenance was off? Doesn’t seem to be any kind of explanation as to why a food production line would have to be totally shut down? Substandard ingredients, wobbly machines, dirty floors, dirty air, dead animals? The place must be a mess?
No, FDA Inspector Karen was just so sure that 4 complaints filed must mean that the formula was the source that they shut the plant down pending testing. Then all the tests came back negative so they insisted on extended testing. They just kept doubling down on stupid, convinced by their own bias that they’d finally find contaminated product.
Then the shortage became so severe it blew up in Karen’s face. It’s not a coincidence that an agreement has been reached the first business day after the formula summit. This is why the media was not allowed.
They shut them down because there was a recall. They got blamed because 2 babies died but it was later proven Abbott had nothing to do with the deaths. They had the plant completely sterilized and called FDA for an inspection but FDA did not respond....for months.
Food manufacturing and food service companies have some really stringent regulations (as they should) but it’s insane that it took so long for the FDA to respond once the plant had been brought back to snuff. All it takes is to get one contaminated shipment and you can be shut down. Remember all the Romain lettuce recalls? All the plants in between the field, processing, retail and to trace and recall.
Can they do accelerated aging like you do for other products? One month accelerated aging=one year real time?
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