Parents in Canada are being affected by reduced availability of certain infant formula brands..Stocks are low on infant formula designed for babies with food allergies and certain medical conditions..In the US a military plane carrying enough specialty infant formula for over half a million baby bottles arrived in Indianapolis on Sunday — the first of a number of flights expected from Europe attempting to relieve a shortage that has set families panicking to get enough to feed their infants..US President Joe Biden authorized the use of US Air Force planes for the campaign named “Operation Fly Formula.” There were no commercial flights available for the mission..US formula milk manufacturer Abbott Laboratories' closure in the United States has been cited as the source of the shortage. The facility has been shut down for over three months because of contamination issues..Consulting agency Field Agent Canada visited 77 retail stores across Canada this month to check whether Canada is feeling the pinch as badly as the US..Jeff Doucette, general manager of Field Agent Canada, said, “We took photos of the baby formula sections and assessed the percentage of items that were out of stock. We found about 21% of items were out of stock during our visits, which is about half the 40% of [items] out of stock being reported in the US.”.Doucette said supply fears have prompted panic buying.."Unnecessarily buying products is just going to make the product out of stock worse and harder to recover from,” he said. He also said stores are rationing the formula to restrain hoarding..Sylvain Charlebois, director of the agrifood and analytics labs at Dalhousie University in Halifax, NS, told Global News Canada will feel the consequences of events in the US as Canada relies on its neighbour to the south to import baby formula..“We actually manufacture baby formula in Canada, but all of it goes to China,” he said. “That’s why, right now, parents are scratching their heads wondering why are we short.”.“Just seven days ago, the Retail Council of Canada was basically telling Canadians ‘don’t worry about it, don’t worry’. But I didn’t understand that message at all as eventually it would affect the Canadian market, and now I think Canadians are not trusting what people are telling them to do,” Charlebois said..In a statement to Global News, Health Canada said it's aware of the current global supply constraints and it has published an “interim policy to facilitate the importation of equivalent and safe infant formulas that have been approved by a foreign regulatory authority or are allowed to be sold in foreign jurisdictions that have high quality and manufacturing standards similar to Canada.”."We understand how this can be concerning to parents and caregivers. Health Canada wants to assure everyone that all products imported to mitigate the shortage and for which CFIA will apply discretionary enforcement are safe," it said in a statement.."These are from countries that have regulatory and manufacturing standards that are similar to those in Canada. Furthermore, Health Canada conducted a safety assessment of each product prior to addition to the list."
