#Cronobacter Sakazakii
Text
PRODUCT RECALL: Nutramigen Powder Infant Formula
Potential Cronobacter Sakazakii Contamination
Can cause severe, life-threatening infections (sepsis) or meningitis
Can cause bowel damage and may spread through the blood to other parts of the body
All Nutramigen products tested by MJN was confirmed negative for contaminants. There are no reported illlnesses or adverse reactions to date
There is no impact on Nutramigen liquid formulas or other Reckitt nutrition products
The following recalled product batch codes and can size associated with each batch were distributed in the U.S.:
ZL3FHG (12.6 oz cans);
ZL3FMH (12.6 oz cans);
ZL3FPE (12.6 oz cans);
ZL3FQD (12.6 oz cans);
ZL3FRW (19.8 oz cans);
ZL3FXJ (12.6 oz cans).
The products have a UPC Code of 300871239418 or 300871239456 and “Use By Date” of “1 Jan 2025”.
More details on the FDA webpage about the recall
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
FDA reports show baby formula contamination while the 2022 formula shortage worsening
FDA reports show baby formula contamination while the 2022 formula shortage worsening
FDA reports that they have done an investigation into the baby formula and found evidence that shows contamination. Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said to CNN that it was one person’s problem or reasonability. With current inflation and economic hardships, mothers are worried about their children, especially in New York reported a shortage of baby formula.
FDA found bacterial contamination in…
View On WordPress
#biopharmcatalyst#cronobacter#cronobacter formula#cronobacter in formula#cronobacter sakazakii#cronobacter sakazakii in infant formula#cronobacter sakazakii infant formula#cronobacter sakazakii treatment#cronobacter similac#cronobacter spp#fda#fda approved#fda approves obesity drug#fda eua#food and drug administration#glenisk yogurt#organic dairy#pure food and drug act#us fda#usfda
0 notes
Text
While You Were Away
What you may have missed this week.
7/30/22
Well, the week is just about over. Another week of dealing with high prices everywhere, having to make some tough choices over how to spend your money. Many, like you, are “trading down” more and more, meaning, you may be opting for the value menu when you usually get a combo meal. Perhaps you’re relearning how to cook, since you got so good at it in…
View On WordPress
0 notes
Text
August 11, 2022
I just wanted to give everyone a heads up that 30+ brands of nutrition drinks including but not limited to Ensure, Pediasure, Glucerna, Oatly, and Premier Protein just got recalled for possible contamination with the bacteria that causes botulism, a paralytic toxin with a lethal dose of 1.3 nanograms. If you've purchased one of the affected lot numbers please return it to the store to be properly disposed of as a biohazard but do not accept any compensatory gift cards because that can be counted as a settlement if you need to file a lawsuit for any potential damages caused by this later on. If you have any questions regarding the recall there's a phone number listed in the article above that you can call, but if you believe you may have ingested toxins then please call your local poison control hotline. Stay safe
#spoonie#actually disabled#cripple punk#chronic illness#physical disability#momblr#parenting#parenting tips#fitblr#gymblr#exercise#exercise tips#tagging with different disability/parenting/exercise tags bc i know those are the groups most likely to use nutrition shakes#if ive missed any please let me know#rambling#botulism#clostridium botulinum#recall#food recalls#psa
34K notes
·
View notes
Text
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced a recall of certain Enfamil brand baby formula products on Monday, citing contamination of Cronobacter sakazakii.
The agency said the Enfamil products recalled is the Nutramigen A+ LGG Hypoallergenic infant formula. The recall affects the standalone 561-gram product and also the pack of four.
The batch of products included in the recall have an expiration date of Jan. 1, 2025.
Full article
Tagging: @politicsofcanada
Date of Article: January 1st, 2024.
#cdnpoli#canada#canadian politics#canadian news#canadian#enfamil#baby formula#recall#product recall#canadian food inspection agency
170 notes
·
View notes
Text
If you have any of Lyons Magnus’s beverages, do not drink them, as 53 different products have been recalled due to potential for bacterial contamination of Cronobacter sakazakii.
This applies to, but is not limited to - their Oatly Oat milk, Premiere Protein Shakes, Aloha plant-based protein shake, and Intelligentsia.
This applies mostly to their products distributed nationally in the U.S., with few internationally exported goods - ranging from those with november 2022 to august 2023 expiration dates.
For more details and specificity, I recommend checking the full list in July 29, 2022 FDA recall page of Lyon Magnus Drinks here
3K notes
·
View notes
Text
Irressistible Force Paradox: Chapter Three - An Open Heart Fic
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Ethan accuses Rory of the unthinkable and Rory fights his growing attraction to his former medical hero.
September 14th. 5:49 p.m.
Oh hell.
I freeze in place, fear momentarily short-circuiting my brain as Ramsey glares at me.
Do you never go home old man!?
“Rookie, you and I n - ”
“You’re a miracle worker!” Sarah gasps, interrupting Dr. Ramsey. “Do you think she’d take a bottle now? She hasn’t had anything to eat for hours.”
I smile down at Emily. “I think that’d be just fine.”
Sarah beams at me and rushes towards Emily’s diapers bag while Jason sags against the doorframe in relief.
“Since Emily is resting now, you and I have some things we need to discuss, Dr. O’Shea.” Ramsey gives me a stern look and nods towards the hallway.
“Um, actually I had something I wanted to show you, Dr. Ramsey,” I meekly reply, using my free hand to motion him closer.
“Dr. O’Shea - ”
“Please,” I implore him softly. “I think it might be important.”
He relents, sighing and stepping closer. “What is it, Rookie?”
I lower my voice to barely a whisper. “I noticed when I unlocked my phone to play some music Emily flinched away from the screen, almost like the brightness hurt her eyes.”
“There could be any number of explanations for that.”
“Her reflexes are sluggish, that combined with the fever, the irritability, not eating - ”
“Look, Rookie.” Ethan puts a hand on my shoulder. “I can appreciate that you want to help, but all these symptoms can be attributed to the sepsis. You’ve managed to calm her down and I’m sure her parents are grateful, but leave her case to the diagnostics team.”
Insufferable. Completely, absolutely insufferable. And gorgeous. And tall. And so completely climbable. I loathe him.
Ramsey’s eyes widen and a small sound of protest leaves his mouth as I grab his hand and gently guide his fingers to the top of Emily’s head. His face pales as his fingertips brush over the swelling that’s nearly invisible under her dark curls.
“As I was saying, all of those symptoms combined with the severe swelling of her fontanelle, makes me think the sepsis was brought on by a severe case of meningitis,” I murmur.
Ramsey gazes down at me steadily. “You think? I’m not going to subject an infant to a spinal tap based on your guess.”
I grit my teeth and inhale deeply. “I know. I know this is meningitis.”
“I’m inclined to agree,” he says. “I’ll page Naveen and call for an anesthesiologist. Once we confirm, we’ll need to pinpoint what variant of meningitis we’re specifically dealing with.”
“Dr. O’Shea? I have Emily’s bottle ready.” Sarah steps forward and takes Emily from me, gently cradling the little girl in her arms and offering her the bottle.
I turn to leave but the sight of a can of formula sticking out of Emily’s diaper bag stops me.
“Sarah? Has Emily always been formula fed?” I ask.
Her face falls. “Is that a problem? I was never able to produce enough milk for her, so we had to formula feed.”
“No, not at all,” I hurriedly reassure her. “As long as our girl gets fed, that’s all that matters.”
“What are you thinking, Rookie?” Ramsey whispers, his warm breath ghosting over my ear.
A pleasant shiver runs through me, and I almost start to lean into him, my traitorous body reacting to his close proximity.
Get it together.
“Bacterial meningitis caused by cronobacter sakazakii.” I murmur, tilting my head towards the formula can.
Ramsey’s eyes widen. “My god,” he whispers. “Stay here and update the parents. I’m getting the rest of the team.”
Not thinking, I reach out and grab his arm before he can walk away. He must be able to see the panic on my face because he takes my hand in his and squeezes it once.
“You can do this, Rookie. Walk them through your theory and what’s going to happen next. I’ll be back soon.”
10:30 p.m.
Through the window of the hospital room I watch Emily rest, an IV inserted in the crook of her tiny arm. Jason and Sarah doze fitfully in armchairs positioned next to her crib. Emily is sleeping soundly, her face no longer flushed with a fever; a sure sign the intravenous antibiotics are working. My shift ended three hours ago, but I can’t bring myself to leave, worried that the minute I walk out of the hospital something awful will happen.
“What are you still doing here, Rookie?”
“Could ask you the same thing, Dr. Ramsey,” I reply, my eyes never leaving Emily’s sleeping form.
“This isn’t even your case.” A hard edge creeps into Ramsey’s voice.
“Are you saying I should only care about the patients that I’m assigned to?”
Ramsey sighs, scratching at the thick stubble on his jaw. “Of course not. A good doctor will care about every patient that walks through those doors, whether they’re assigned to them or not. But I’m not convinced anything you did this afternoon was because you cared about the patient.”
I turn to face him and cross my arms over my chest, scowling. “Excuse me?”
“You think any other physician here would have let you get away with that little stunt you pulled this afternoon?” Ramsey steps closer, towering over me, and I fight the urge to back away from him.
“If you hadn’t made that solve I would have had your job, Rookie,” he continues, his voice low and dark. “Attention-seeking stunts like that won’t land you a spot on the diagnostics team, so if you ever even think about doing something like this again you will be out on your ass.”
I blink, momentarily stunned into silence. “You think I helped Emily just to get noticed by the diagnostics team?” I finally manage to ask, unable to keep a note of hurt out of my voice.
Ramsey rolls his eyes. “I see it every year, ambitious interns who think that if they pull off an impressive solve -”
“You think I would use a sick child to further my career?” I seethe, drawing myself up to my full five feet four inches. I move closer, invading his personal space and jabbing a finger into his muscled chest. “I was waiting for test results on the one case I had, so I offered to sit with Emily so Jason and Sarah could get some rest.”
His handsome face shifts into a disdainful sneer. “So you abandoned your own patient to help mine.”
“I was partnered with Dr. Landry on that case, and he had no issues proceeding on his own for an hour or two while I assisted Jason and Sara. I’m surprised you don’t remember that since you went out of your way to try and humiliate him when we presented earlier today,” I hiss.
Ramsey has the good grace to momentarily look abashed, and he breaks eye contact with me as his cheeks flush a faint pink. He clears his throat. “Now that you have mentioned it I do seem to recall -”
“I didn’t do this to get noticed by the diagnostics team,” I continue, poking him again. “I did it because I saw a pair of scared, first time parents falling apart because their baby was sick and inconsolable. I did it because that family needed help.”
Ramsey catches my hand in his, sending a pleasant thrill through me, and gently pulls it away from his chest. “I may have been hasty in my initial assessment of your motivations,” he says slowly.
I rip my hand away from him, cradling it against my chest. “Don’t ever fucking touch me again.”
I turn and hurry down the hallway, trying to ignore the way my body responded to Ramsey’s touch, and how much his accusation had hurt.
**********************************************************************************
September 17. 9:30 p.m.
“Shit. Shit, shit, shit!” I mutter, sitting on the floor behind the intake desk and looking through the lost and found box. I’d spent the whole day moving into a new apartment and the last thing I want to be doing is searching for my I.D. badge, but if I don’t have it tomorrow morning it will be just one more excuse for Ramsey to get on my case. And after our last encounter outside Emily’s hospital room, I’ve been avoiding him at all costs. I eventually find it among the sea of tangled lanyards and other bits and bobs that my fellow doctors have misplaced.
I shove the box back into place and start to stand up, wincing as the blood flows back into my lower legs. I immediately crouch back down as raised voices carry down the corridor and draw nearer to the waiting area. I peek over the edge of the desk, watching Ramsey throw his hands up in the air and scowl at Dr. Banerji.
“You can’t do this, Naveen! I won’t let you!” Ramsey shouts, angrily running his hands through his hair as he paces back and forth.
“It must be done, Ethan,” Dr. Banerji says placidly. “Not everything is in your control. It’s time you finally learned that.”
“You are not my teacher anymore!”
Naveen gently smiles at him. “I am always your teacher.”
“Goddamnit Naveen!” I involuntarily gasp as Ramsey slams his fist into the wall. Dr. Banerji sighs softly before walking away, Ramsey staring miserably after him.
What. The. Fuck.
Faced with the choice of hiding here until Ramsey overcomes whatever internal crisis he’s going through or facing him directly… I decide to nut up. I slowly emerge from my hiding space without him noticing me. I strongly consider just sneaking away, but then I notice the blood. I wage a brief internal battle before making my choice.
“Dr. Ramsey?” I call out softly.
He whirls around to face me, eyes wide. Once he recognizes me his eyes narrow and he scowls. “Spying on me, Dr. O’Shea?”
“It’s adorable that you think I’d waste my very limited free time on you,” I snark back.
“How much did you see?” he asks, clenching his jaw.
My god, that jawline… Focus, Rory!
I shrug. “Enough.”
“If you speak a word about this to anyone -”
“You’re bleeding,” I interrupt.
He stares down at his hand in confusion. “I didn’t realize…”
“Come on,” I sigh. “Let’s get it taken care of.”
Ramsey’s shoulders stiffen. “I am perfectly capable of -”
I roll my eyes. “Do not fear Dr. Ramsey, even I, a lowly intern, know how to patch up busted knuckles. Just let me help.”
He refuses to move, so I grab onto the end of his tie and gently tug him towards an empty patient room. Too shocked to protest, he obediently follows me. Once we’re in the room I shut the door to prevent any prying eyes, and direct him to sit on the edge of the hospitable bed while I glove up and gather all the necessary items. I sit next to him and tentatively take his hand, surprised by just how much larger it is than mine.
“Do you want to talk about it?” I ask, soaking a gauze pad in saline solution and dabbing away the drying blood on Ramsey’s knuckles.
“No,” he says tersely, refusing to look at me.
“Ok,” I murmur, focusing my attention on my work. Some of my hair falls out of my ponytail and into my eyes. “Damn.”
“Let me.” Ramsey’s voice is rough and there’s a slight hitch in his breathing. He extends his uninjured hand, pausing just short of touching me. I tilt my head up, allowing him to move the loose hair out of my eyes. His fingertips brush against the shell of my ear, lightly trailing over the curve of my jaw as he withdraws his hand; the scrap of his calloused skin against my light five o’clock shadow causes a pleasant shiver to run through me.
I peer up at him over the rims over my glasses. “Thank you,” I whisper, suddenly feeling nervous.
He doesn’t reply as his blue eyes rove over me, taking in every detail. “Why are you doing this?” he finally asks.
I shake my head, breaking the temporary spell he had seemingly cast over me. “You hurt yourself,” I say, annoyed at how breathless I sound. I snap my eyes back down to his hand, gently dabbing antiseptic cream over his cuts.
He laughs softly, the sound dark and seductive in the close quarters of the small hospital room. “I’m fairly sure I could have managed a band-aid or two, Rookie.”
I shake my head, biting my lower lip as I concentrate on precisely placing steri-strips over his broken skin. “I don’t know,” I finally mutter.
“You’re so different from the others,” Ramsey whispers, almost to himself.
I snap my gloves off and gather up my trash, depositing it in the appropriate disposal bins under Ramsey’s intense gaze. “I need to go, Dr. Ramsey. My roommates are -”
The words stutter in my chest as Ramsey stands up and catches one of my hands in his. “I owe you an apology.”
My brain short circuits at the feel of his fingertips caressing my palm, a barely there sensation that instantly makes me wonder what that touch would feel like on other parts of my body. “W-what?” I stammer.
“For accusing you of using Emily’s case to further your career,” he clarifies. “It was an unfair assumption on my part, and I apologize.”
Just like that the spell is broken, the mere mention of his accusation enough infuriate me all over again. Glaring, I jerk away from him, resolutely ignoring the faint pang of disappointment that thrums through my body as I do. “You can take your apology and shove it up - ”
“Rookie.” The word is a growled warning, and Ramsey has gone from contrite to furious.
“Have a nice night, Dr. Ramsey,” I say venomously as I leave the hospital room, rubbing my palm against my thigh, wishing I could erase the feeling of his touch.
#open heart#open heart fanfiction#OPH#oph2#open heart fanfic#open heart mc#pb open heart#open heart ethan#open heart choices#open heart male oc#open heart male mc#open heart pixelberry#choices#pb choices#choices fanfic#choices game#pixelberry choices#ethan ramsey#ethan ramsey x oc#ethan ramsey x mc#ethan ramsey x male mc#ethan x mc
10 notes
·
View notes
Text
Big Bottle and the Baby Formula Apocalypse
As anyone with an infant knows, there is a major crisis in the feeding of America’s babies right now, because parents in some areas can’t get baby formula. A few months ago, a major producer of formula - Abbott Labs - shut down its main production facilities in Sturgis, Michigan, which had been contaminated with the bacteria Cronobacter sakazakii, killing two babies and injuring two others. Abbott provides 43% of the baby formula in the United States, under the brand names Similac, Alimentum and EleCare, so removing this amount of supply from the market is the short-term cause of the problem. (Abbott and Mead Johnson produce 80% of the formula in the U.S., and if you add in Nestle, that gets to 98% of the market.) The problem is not, however, that there isn’t enough formula, so much as the consolidated distribution system creates a lot of shortages in specific states.
First, it’s hard to convey what a nightmare this situation is for parents, especially those whose children require special kinds of formula because of gastrointestinal issues or food allergies. “The shortage has led us to decide to put a feeding tube in our child,” said one parent, who simply could not get the specialized formula her daughter needs.
Baby formula is not just food, but the primary or sole nutrition for a vulnerable person in a stage of life in which very specific nutritional requirements are necessary for growth. Baby formula was created during the 19th century as we developed modern food preservation techniques. Before this remarkable innovation, baby starvation was common if a mother couldn’t breastfeed her infant (which happens a lot). The invention of industrialized formula was one of those creations we take for granted, but like antibiotics and other medical and scientific advances, it was one that fundamentally changed parenthood and the family.
This shortage is showing just how reliant we are on industrialized formula. The causal factor behind the crisis is poor regulation and a consolidated and brittle supply chain. Imports from Europe are often prohibited, even if there were excess productive capacity elsewhere. I spent a bit of time calling around to people who work in formula, and the industry is basically on a war footing. Everyone is panicking, because the situation is, in short, a nightmare.
I’m going to try and lay out the situation, and explain the market structure. There are two basic mechanisms that have created a concentrated and brittle market. The first is that regulators are tough on newcomers, but soft on incumbents. And the second is that the Federal government buys more than half of the baby formula in the market, and under the guise of competitive bidding, it in fact hands out monopoly licenses for individual states. That makes it impossible to get newcomers of any scale into the market, along with the more resiliency that such competition brings. It also makes it hard to address shortages in one state with extra formula from elsewhere.
But first, let’s start by following the money.
Financial Returns or Your Baby’s Life
The simplest way to understand why there’s a shortage is to look at the incentives for the CEO of Abbott Labs. Here’s a Reuters report coming out of the company’s investor call in April, after the factory shutdown was underway. Keep in mind, the executives on this call are the people responsible for managing this vital resource, and here’s how seriously they took the problem.
“Abbott called the recall a "short-term hindrance" and said it was working closely with the regulator and has begun implementing corrective actions and enhancements to the facility.Abbott shares rose 2.4% to $122.90 in morning trade as some analysts said the comments during the conference call allayed worries over the recall.Despite the recall and supply chain issues, Abbott beat quarterly profit and revenue estimates in the first quarter.”
Not a single Wall Street analyst asked about the recall. Why? In some ways, it’s because it doesn’t matter that much to the bottom line. Abbott Labs is a diversified medical devices and health care company, and its nutritional segment is a relatively small part part of its business. But also, if you need baby formula, which is highly regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, and distributed by a monopoly-friendly system run by the Department of Agriculture, where else are you gonna go?
And that’s the problem. Baby formula is a shared monopoly, and we are at the mercy of Abbott Labs, Read Johnson, and Nestle. And their execs know it. So how does this shared monopoly work? Let’s start with the regulators.
The Failed Priesthood at the FDA
Entering the baby formula market is a difficult process, and takes years of work. For instance, Bobbie, which makes European-style formula with a contract manufacturer, is the first firm to come into the market in five years. Bobbie is also a direct to consumer niche firm, so it doesn’t have the scale to address the market dislocation at hand. It was a rough road getting started; the firm faced a recall and a shut down purely for manufacturing in Germany, and it had to go through millions of dollars of capital and a steep learning curve to get its product accepted by the FDA.
The reason for regulatory hurdles seems good, on the surface. Manufacturing formula is very specific, it’s not like a snack bar, it fits in somewhere between medication and food in the regulatory spectrum. Congress put extremely detailed instructions in the Infant Formula Act of 1980. To get a product approved, an entrant needs protein efficiency studies, thousands of quality tests from raw ingredients to the end product, nutritional tests to make sure it is suitable for infants, and approvals for new suppliers. There are specialized forms of formula for babies with different conditions. Naturally, starting a new formula firm takes a massive amount of time, patience, and capital.
And that’s if you just want to make a product and can even find a contract manufacturer to produce it for you. There is just one contract manufacturer of baby formula in the U.S. - Perrigo Nutritionals, and it requires a large initial order volume, which adds a hurdle to new potential firms. What about new factories? Earlier this year, a nutrition company ByHeart became just the fourth infant formula brand to have its own factory, something no one else had done in fifteen years. Certifying a factory for infant formula, like making a new product, is difficult and expensive.
Is this expense necessary? Not entirely. The institutional risk tolerance of the FDA is extraordinarily low. FDA officials see themselves as an elite priesthood, pursuing excellence merely by dint of being at the FDA. From this perspective, there is zero incentive to let new players into the baby formula market when, in their view, there are already excellent quality companies serving the market, such as Abbott Labs, Mead Johnson, and Nestle. It’s true that baby formula is overpriced in the U.S., costing about twice as much as it does throughout much of Europe. But to an FDA official, price is incidental.
The thinking goes, who wants to be the official that accidentally lets a reckless entrepreneur poison a bunch of babies, just so that there’s some competition in a market that is already delivering good products? When there is no problem at hand, there is no reason to allow innovation in the industry, or additional capacity.
The problem, of course, is that the FDA is harsh to newcomers, but deferential to incumbents. According to Healthy Babies Bright Futures, baby formula made by the big guys in the U.S. is full of dangerous brain-altering heavy metals. HBBF tested thirteen different baby formulas, and every single one had “detectable levels of arsenic, cadmium, lead and/or mercury,” which are all considered to be neurotoxic, interfering with brain development and “causing permanent IQ reductions in children.”
Moreover, FDA inspections of Abbott plants are obviously a disaster. Abbott had old and dirty equipment making formula, falsified records, deceived regulators, had bad product tracing, and did not fix problems after discovery. FDA inspectors noticed problems with the plant in September, but ignored them. Then, a whistleblower told the FDA of these problems in October, but regulators didn’t even bother to interview him/her until December. Moe Tkacik, in a viral Twitter thread, persuasively laid out parallels to the Boeing/FAA disaster.
So that’s the regulatory problem. Then there’s the market structure, which creates a lumpy distribution system when there’s a shortage.
Rebates and Scams
The biggest buyer of infant formula in the U.S. is WIC, or the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, which is run by the Department of Agriculture. Roughly half of women get formula from WIC. Rather than food stamps, which is a set amount of cash that can be used for most products, most states only allow women to buy formula from one company, though each company offers a bunch of different brands.
To save money, the government requires states to hold auctions to get the lowest price for formula. The problem is, state agencies use a complex rebating system to give the contract for the entire state to one manufacturer, and that contract can only be changed once every four years. Here’s the USDA explaining the program.
Typically, WIC State agencies obtain substantial discounts in the form of rebates from infant formula manufacturers for each can of formula purchased through the program. In exchange for rebates, a manufacturer is given the exclusive right to provide its product to WIC participants in the State. These sole-source contracts are awarded on the basis of competitive bids. The brand of formula provided by WIC varies by State depending on which manufacturer holds the contract for that State.
This rebate system distorts the entire market in a state, because it’s just not worth having alternative formulas on a retail shelf if half of the buyers simply cannot purchase those formulas. As a result, the market tips to the WIC supplier, and that supplier raises prices on non-WIC recipients, and does so by between 26-35%.
Here’s what happened to the baby formula market in California when the WIC contract changed hands.
This whole scheme, done under the guise of welfare, is essentially a transfer of wealth from the middle class to the poor, done by enriching the baby formula cartel. The monopoly friendly program design was peddled by the anti-poverty group the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, which is both on the center-left of the political spectrum and aligned with Wall Street.
This brings us back to the shortage. According to Truthout, Abbott is the monopoly provider of formula for 34 states, seven Indian tribal organizations, four territories and Washington, D.C. So that’s where we’d expect the shortages to be focused. Because of the design of the program, it’s not particularly easy to move different kinds of formula to WIC recipients.
And that, perhaps more than any actual national shortage, is the problem. Here’s the Wall Street Journal today. “The FDA said overall the nation’s infant formula manufacturers are making enough to meet demand even w/out Abbott’s main factory online. The industry sold more formula in April than it did the month before the recall, the FDA said." The White House echoed these claims, asserting that “more infant formula has been produced in the last four weeks than in the four weeks preceding the recall.”
There’s a well-known black market in formula, which speaks to the dysfunction of the distribution system. The shortages are concentrated in certain areas even if nationally there might be enough to get by. According to Heather Bottemiller Evich, there are just “6 states that had baby formula out-of-stock rates higher than 50 percent: Iowa, South Dakota, and North Dakota were 50-51%. Missouri was 52%. Texas was 53% and Tennessee was 54%.” But nationally, it’s not so bad.
In some ways, the problem is that there’s baby formula, but it’s not in the right place (though the Sturgis factory was a monopoly producer of lots of specialized formulas, so the actual shortage itself is a huge problem). The simplest solution here is to get aggressive and capable leadership around logistics, and then move the formula where it needs to go. We’ll have to open up imports temporarily, and move supply around the country while allowing WIC recipients to buy non-contract brands. I suspect at some point the Biden administration will get their hands on the situation, and fix it. There will be Congressional hearings, and Abbott’s CEO will get yelled at.
Longer-term, I hope there will be consequences. First, we need to explore forcing Abbott to break off its nutritional division from the rest of the firm, since it’s fairly obvious that there’s little corporate focus on making sure the baby formula division is run well. Conglomerates are usually inefficient. Second, Congress should really restructure the WIC program so that the auctions don’t create monopolies, and lumpy distribution patterns that induce regional shortages.
Finally, the FDA needs wholesale reform, since this kind of crisis seems to happen a lot. I mean, the relationship between the FDA and Abbott Labs was also behind the rapid Covid testing scandal, where FDA official Tim Stenzel - who had worked at Abbott - then approved Abbott as one of two firms to make those tests, and blocked all other entrants. That’s why rapid Covid tests were both in shortage and much more expensive in the U.S. than they are in Europe. The FDA needs to be broken up so that its drugs and food divisions are separate, and it needs to take its mandate seriously for a resilient supply chain.
In some ways, this baby formula crisis is the same problem as United having passenger David Dao being beaten up in 2017 and removed from the plane, to public horror and Congressional rage. United’s stock went up after the incident. Or it’s like nurses wearing garbage bags at the beginning of the pandemic because of our dependence on China, and the sad reality that policymakers in the last two years have refused to stop sourcing from China. Hopefully, these kinds of failures, and the public rage, are laying the groundwork for wholesale reform of our government. At every level of policymaking, we have a systemic bias against people who focus on making things, in favor of well-branded monopolists and cloistered regulators who are obsessed with fanciness instead of actual critical thinking.
And that’s no way to run a democracy.
9 notes
·
View notes
Text
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
Furious at Capitalism
So, this evening's highlight is a potential risk to disabled people's health because - just like the US formula shortage - a limited number of large corporations make a majority of a particular type of product. In this case, it's nutritional beverages. The sort people like me rely on to feed themselves.
The problem - again, the same thing that was the cause behind the formula shortage - is crappy manufacturing standards resulting in potential contamination. "Preliminary root cause analysis shows that the products did not meet commercial sterility specifications." In this case, the potential issue is botulism. So. Imagine you rely on these products to stay alive. Here's the picture USA Today attached to their article:
Here's the link to their article:
I will spare you the picture of the two cases of Premier Protein beverages I recently bought from Costco, of which I have consumed about 1/3rd. Both of them are on the recall list "due to the potential for microbial contamination, including from the organisms Cronobacter sakazakii and Clostridium botulinum."
Super. Also, "vulnerable and immunocompromised populations may be more susceptible to infection." So... the people most likely to be reliant on these products are more likely to get sick from them. Fun times.
Now, to be thorough, there are no reports that anyone has gotten sick yet. But it's not a risk we can afford to take. I just finished the better part of two years of cancer treatment. I also have an autoimmune disorder. Fuck Capitalism.
#fuck capitalism#monopolies#late stage capitalism#u.s. fda#lyons magnus#pediasure#ensure#premier protein#disability#botulism#food contamination
4 notes
·
View notes
Text
Adult Formula
Abbot laboratory is a.company
that owns 48% of baby formula market in the country
The baby formula shortage was caused
By a shutdown of one of its facilities
Due to a strain of Cronobacter sakazakii, bacteria
Which Abbot made a defensive comment quick
No evidence suggests its formula made any babies sick
That is a thin line that maybe true
Since itm is the bacter
Though the bacteria was found in…
View On WordPress
4 notes
·
View notes
Text
Recall: 53 Lyons Magnus Nutritional and Beverage Products
7/30/22
Lyons Magnus is voluntarily recalling 53 different nationally distributed products within its lineup due to the possibility of a microbial contamination.
Products are thought to be infected with Cronobacter sakazakii, among others. If infected, the usual menu of maladies affect you, symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, and fever. The one symptom that’s different is a urinary tract…
View On WordPress
0 notes
Text
Nestlé has issued a voluntary recall for some of its Good Start Soothe infant formula sold in Canada due to a potential bacteria contamination.
Distributor Perrigo Company says the product is being recalled out of an abundance of caution due to the potential presence of the bacteria Cronobacter sakazakii.
The affected formula was sold across Canada in 942-gram packages, with the lot numbers 301757651Z, 301757652Z and 301857651Z, and best before dates of July 18 and 19, 2024.
Full article
Tagging: @politicsofcanada
Date of Article: March 18th, 2023.
#cdnpoli#canadian politics#canada#canadian news#canadian#nestlé#recall#product recall#baby formula#infant formula
186 notes
·
View notes
Text
Detecta Cofepris contaminación bacteriana en Nutramigen Premium
CHILPANCINGO * Enero 24, 2024.
) Terra México
La Comisión Federal para la Protección contra Riesgos Sanitarios (Cofepris) ha emitido una contundente alerta tras detectar contaminación bacteriana en un lote de formula infantil de la marca Nutramigen Premium por lo que ha sido retirada del mercado para salvaguardar a la población.
La Cofepris ha alertado a la ciudadanía y a los consumidores de este producto para realizar una inspección minuciosa del lote y la fecha de caducidad al momento de adquirir la formula infantil Nutramigen Premium. Ya que el fabricante Mead Johnson Nutricionales de México ha notificado a las autoridades sobre el retiro voluntario del lote por presentar contaminación bacteriana.
Siendo que el lote de formula infantil ha presentado contaminación de la bacteria Cronobacter sakazakii, la cual puede desencadenar en el menor, síntomas como llanto excesivo, dificultad para alimentarse y convulsiones, provocando en algunos casos, enfermedades graves como septicemia o meningitis, que son mortales en infantes.
El fabricante Mead Johnson Nutricionales de México señalo que los productos afectado por la contaminación bactriana pertenecen a la formula infantil Nutramigen Premium cuyo lote es ZL3FHC Nutramigen Premium LGG PWD 357 g, etapa 1 de 0 a 12 meses, con fecha de caducidad 1 ENE 25. Asimismo, señaló que los productos afectados tienen presentación de lata de 357 gramos y presentan los códigos de barras 300871239418 o 300871239456, que corresponden a los siguientes lotes: ZL3FHG, ZL3FMH, ZL3FPE, ZL3FQD, ZL3FRW, ZL3FXJ.
La Cofepris ya ha desplegado medidas necesarias para contener la venta y exhorta a los distribuidores y farmacias que en caso de contar con almacenes de Nutramigen con los números de lotes señalados se abstengan de comercializarlos. Asimismo, hace un llamado para que los padres estén atentos a los síntomas de los lactantes en caso de hacer consumido el producto contaminado y hace hincapié que en caso de contar con un producto de esta índole, denunciarlo y ponerse en contacto con la empresa Mead Johnson Nutricionales de México S. de R.L. de C.V., a través del número de teléfono 800-1239558 24/7 o por correo electrónico en atenció[email protected].
] Síguenos en facebook.com/acapulcopress
) Síguenos en facebook.com/angelblanco.press
] Síguenos en ) acapulcopress.com
Read the full article
0 notes
Text
Anvisa proíbe 6 lotes da fórmula infantil Nutramigen LGG
A Anvisa (Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária) proibiu a comercialização de seis lotes da fórmula infantil em pó Nutramigen LGG após um alerta do FDA (agência que supervisiona alimentos e remédios nos EUA) sobre uma possível contaminação do produto pela bactéria Cronobacter sakazakii.
Leia mais (01/15/2024 – 10h45)
Artigo Folha de S.Paulo – Equilíbrio e Saúde – Principal Pulicado em…
View On WordPress
0 notes
Link
0 notes
Last Seen Blogs
canmore-elblood
Canmore ElBlood
icanbeyewrmuse
OwnBreed
youngvegeta
Young Vegeta
bucetadoharry
ma.
hislisblog-blog
Hisli