UK baby milk maker to fly formula to US to help ease shortages | US baby formula shortage

A Lake District-based baby milk maker will be among the first European manufacturers to fly formula to the US to help ease a shortage that has left many parents struggling to feed their babies.

Kendamil, the only UK-made baby milk brand on the market, produced by the family-owned Kendal Nutricare, has stepped up after Abbott Laboratories, the largest producer in the US with a 40% market share, had a nationwide recall.

The Cumbria-based company will send 100 truckloads of formula – used by the royal family to wean Prince Louis of Cambridge – to the US over the next six months, after the US regulator, the Food and Drug Administration, temporarily eased importation requirements for baby formula until mid-November.

The changes are part of Operation Fly Formula, launched by Joe Biden this month to tackle the shortage that has arisen since Abbott closed a factory in Michigan in February and recalled infant formula products.

That decision followed a federal investigation into the cases of four babies taking the formula who developed bacterial infections, two of whom died. Abbott has said there is no link between its formula and the illnesses.

Will McMahon, the commercial director of Kendal Nutricare, said the Covid-19 pandemic had disrupted the supply chain for infant formula, while the Abbott recall caused a 40%-plus shortage of baby formula on shelves in the US.

He told the BBC the US had been “a closed shop for baby formula” for decades, where the top four producers account for more than 95% of purchases.

“With market dynamics like that you’re always leaving yourself exposed to an incident like this,” he told Radio 4’s Today programme. “In the United Kingdom, consumers have a much broader selection of products and that availability of foreign brands allows gaps to be filled. This is something relatively unique to the US.”

The FDA waiver lasts until mid-November but the company hopes to continue to sell its formula in the US beyond that date.

“The bigger opportunity here is as a company we’ve been in touch with the FDA and working with them for over five years with the aim of bringing product into the US,” McMahon said. “There is enormous curiosity and demand for Kendamil in the States, so we are hopeful that we will have everything in place with the FDA to be able to continue to supply legitimately well beyond November.”