Baby Formula Production Halted After Flooding At Abbott Nutrition Plant

Abbott Nutrition is dealing with another setback as it tries to get baby formula back on store shelves to help alleviate a nationwide shortage. The company said that it was forced to halt production at its production plant in Sturgis, Michigan because of severe flooding.

"As a result, Abbott has stopped production of its EleCare specialty formula that was underway to assess damage caused by the storm and clean and re-sanitize the plant. We have informed FDA and will conduct comprehensive testing in conjunction with the independent third party to ensure the plant is safe to resume production. This will likely delay production and distribution of new product for a few weeks," the company said in a statement.

Abbott said that it has an "ample existing supply of EleCare and most of its specialty and metabolic formulas" produced at other facilities across the country.

"Abbott will have produced 8.7 million pounds of infant formula in June for the U.S., or the equivalent of 168.2 million 6 oz. feedings. This is 95% of what we produced in January, prior to the recall, and does not include production from Sturgis," Abbott noted in the statement.

The production halt comes less than two weeks after the plant reopened, following a months-long closure after inspectors from the Food and Drug Administration found Cronobacter sakazakii bacteria in the facility.