The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) funding extension for formula manufacturers is about the department's priorities in the face of critical shortages, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a news release.
USDA has extended key funding flexibility in its Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program to continue allowing state agencies and infant formula manufacturers to provide more options for families in need of formula, according to a July 28 USDA news release.
U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack
| usda.gov/
"Ensuring families have the formula they need continues to be an all-hands-on-deck, cross-sector effort, and USDA remains fully engaged," Vilsack said. "WIC families are counting on us, and we will continue to use all the tools at our disposal to get them the nourishment their babies need."
USDA's pandemic-born flexibility, now extended through September, covers additional costs of non-contract formula with an eye toward reducing costs for states that, in turn, allow WIC families greater choice in the size, forms and brands of infant formula.
USDA's flexibility extension came amid a still ongoing nationwide infant formula shortage.
The shortage has been particularly difficult for families who receive benefits through WIC state agencies, which traditionally have contracted one of three manufacturers to provide formula for needy infants who are partially or fully reliant on formula.
In May, using authority granted by the then newly passed Access to Baby Formula Act, USDA recommended WIC state agencies that had been contracting with formula manufacturers Reckitt Mead Johnson or Gerber seek contract flexibility with those companies. The flexibility allows alternate formulas should contracted size, form or brand of formulas be unavailable, and USDA is covering the resultant additional costs while supplies remain impacted through Sept. 30.
USDA continues to provide similar temporary flexibility in state WIC agencies that contract with Abbott Nutrition. The formula manufacturer issued a voluntary formula recall in February, following reports of bacterial infections in four infants fed powdered infant formula produced in Abbott's Sturgis, Michigan, facility. Abbott is covering contract cost differences and plans to do so through September.
