US now working to expedite baby formula shipments from Mexico to ease continuing shortage

The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it will help in efforts to import the equivalent of about 16 million 8-ounce baby formula bottles from Mexico to help ease a nationwide shortage of the infant food.

The effort is being led by the Department of Health and Human Services and includes expediting trucks delivering about 1 million pounds of Gerber Good Start Gentle infant formula from a Nestlé plant to U.S. retailers, according to the Associated Press.

The effort will nearly doubling the amount of baby formula being imported to the U.S. to date, the White House says.

The shortage started with the closure in February of the largest U.S. baby food manufacturing plant over contamination concerns. 

The first efforts to get formula from other countries to ease the U.S. shortage started with cargo flights from Europe and Australia, which includes two new rounds of air shipments that started this past weekend.

The White House has trying to help since regulators shuttered the formula plant – in Michigan and run by Abbott.

The plant reopened June 4 but shuttered again about a week ago after severe weather damaged it.

Biden has already authorized the use of the Defense Production Act to provide federal support to move formula from overseas into the United States.

The plan announced Wednesday also includes air shipments from Germany, in an effort the White House has dubbed "Operation Fly Formula."