USDA Must Address ‘Corporate Concentration’ of Baby Formula Industry: Democrat Senators

The shelves at a Marc's grocery store, which has started rationing cans of powdered baby formula, in the west Cleveland suburb of Lakewood, Ohio, on May 13, 2022. Customers are limited to three 12.5-ounce cans of Enfamil during the shortage that has been caused by a recall of other brands produced by Abbott Labs in Michigan. Michael Sakal/The Epoch Times

Eight Democrat senators have written a letter to the Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Thomas J. Vilsack asking him to tackle the baby formula industry’s “alarming level of corporate concentration” amid a shortage of the product.

Four companies, Abbott Nutrition, Mead Johnson, Gerber, and Perrigo, control almost 90 percent of the infant formula market. Abbott Nutrition, whose recall of some of its products has led to the shortage, alone controls around 40 percent of the market.