DALLAS — A shipment of more than 50 tons of baby formula is flying from Cologne, Germany to Fort Worth on Thursday, President Biden announced Monday, to help address the national formula shortage.
The delivery includes 110,000 pounds of Nestle NAN SupremePro Stage 1 infant formula, enough for about 1.6 million 8-ounce bottles, and will be available across the country.
Officials did not say why Fort Worth was chosen as the shipment destination, though it is home to Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base.
More deliveries of the formula will be announced the in the coming days, the Biden Administration stated.
Nestle plans to export about 41 million 8-ounce bottle equivalents into the market, they added.
Under Biden’s Operation Fly Formula initiative, meant to speed up the import of infant formula and get it to stores as soon as possible, U.S. agencies are partnering to pick up overseas infant formula to get it to store shelves faster. In addition to the recent Nestle shipment, the operation is also sourcing flights for an extra 8.3 million bottles from Bubs Australia and Kendamil infant formula.
The Biden Administration is also taking actions to ensure there is enough safe formula for families, they stated, including invoking the Defense Production Act, reopening Abbott Nutrition’s Sturgis facility, and issuing FDA guidance for major formula manufacturers so they can safely import formula not being produced in the U.S.
Nestle has had a long history of providing baby formula, though not without facing controversy.
A boycott was launched against their products in 1977 due to the aggressive marketing of their baby formula over breastfeeding in undeveloped countries.
One 2018 study from the University of California Berkeley determined the introduction of Nestle infant formula may have resulted in about 66,000 infant deaths in low- and middle-income countries in 1981.