Frank Yiannas, former FDA deputy commissioner for food policy & response, and Peter Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, testified before the House Oversight subcommittee.
Yiannas’s tenure at the agency ended earlier this year, with the former official citing “decentralization” as part of his departure. During his testimony on Tuesday, he cited this same issue as having contributed to the formula shortage.
Speaking before the committee, he stressed that he did believe enough has been done since the shortage last year to prevent another one from happening.
“The nation remains one outbreak, one tornado, flood or cyberattack away from finding itself in a similar place to that of February 17, 2022,” Yiannas said.
Throughout 2022, parents and caregivers in the U.S. had to contend with empty baby food shelves at retail stores due to the shutdown of an Abbott Nutrition facility in Michigan. The company is one of four that control about 90 percent of the infant formula industry in the U.S.
Low-income families, who are more reliant on formula, and those with children who require specialized formulas were hit particularly hard by the shortage. The U.S. eventually turned to importing infant formula from Europe and Australia to boost supplies.
Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), ranking member of the subcommittee, spoke out against what she referred to as monopolistic companies in the industry.
“By diversifying supply, competitive markets could cure many of the formula shortage risks even with the other mistakes that were made,” Porter said during the hearing.
Yiannis recommended that bacterial contamination, like the one that shut down the Abbott facility, should be more easily surveilled and reported.
Lurie, who formerly served as the FDA’s associate commissioner for public health strategy and analysis, noted that President Biden’s budget calls for $12 million to establish a Center for Nutrition and advised that funding for this office be doubled.
