Major U.S. retailers limit infant formula purchases on shortage

Reuters — U.S. retailers including Target, CVS and Walgreens Boots Alliance said on Tuesday they have limited purchases of infant formula due to a supply shortage.

The limits come after top supplier Abbott Laboratories in February recalled some baby formula including Similac made at its plant in Michigan over complaints of bacterial infections in infants who consumed the products.

CVS said it last month limited in-store and online purchases of the products to three per order, while Walgreens issued a similar cap in March. Kroger has a limit of four products per customer and Target has had restrictions on online sales for weeks.

Abbott said on Tuesday it was “doing everything” it can to address the shortage, including prioritizing production of the products and air shipping them from its U.S. drug regulator-approved facility in Ireland.

The company is also working closely with the Food and Drug Administration to restart operations at its Michigan facility, a spokesperson said. No formula that has been distributed has tested positive for bacteria, according to the company.

Similac, whose listed ingredients include skim milk, whey powder and soy and sunflower oils, was also subject to a recall in the Canadian market effective Feb. 17.

The product was also sold nationally in Canada but the federal health department said, at the time, that while cases of illness have been reported in the U.S., none had yet been reported in Canada.

The recalls are based on the potential risk of contamination with salmonella and Cronobacter sakazakii. The latter is “not commonly linked to human illness (but) in rare cases it can cause serious or fatal infections,” Health Canada said.

Abbott is the leading supplier of milk formula in the U.S., with a market share of about 42 per cent in 2021, followed by British consumer goods firm Reckitt Benckiser with a nearly 38 per cent share, according to Euromonitor data.

About 40 per cent of baby formula products were out of stock across the U.S. last month, said Ben Reich, the chief executive of data firm Datasembly.

Supply chain snags, product recalls and historic inflation have compounded the shortage, he added.

— Reporting for Reuters by Deborah Sophia, Manas Mishra and Leroy Leo in Bangalore; additional reporting by Richa Naidu in London. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.