Back in 2022, on New Year’s Eve, my husband and another desperate new dad both found themselves in a barren aisle in Shoppers Drug Mart, looking for something to feed their infants. A staff member had disappeared into the back to look, unsuccessfully, for the formula requested by the other dad. We were luckier: a member of our extended family had managed to secure the formula we needed at another location. With something to actually feed our daughter since my milk had not yet come in, we were able to take our premature, four-something-pound newborn home from the hospital.
The severe formula shortages in the U.S. and Canada that year were caused by a confluence of factors, including lingering supply chain issues from the COVID-19 pandemic. But the critical trigger was the closing of a major U.S. production plant in Michigan following reports of serious bacterial infections in four infants. The Abbott plant, which was one of four factories that produced roughly 90 per cent of formula in the U.S., was shut down in February, 2022, for about six months (and then subsequently shut down again because of flooding), which caused critical formula shortages. Canada then, and now, has no domestic production of infant formula. We rely entirely on imports to feed our babies.
As an interim measure in 2022, Health Canada recommended that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) waive certain labelling and ingredient requirements to allow other formulas, such as those produced in Germany and Britain, to be sold in Canada (that measure has now been extended until 2025). And the situation has since improved: common formulas for healthy babies are relatively easy to find. But Canada is still experiencing shortages of specialty formulas and generic, more affordable, formulas.
It makes no sense. Canada produces enough of the raw components to make infant formula – a surplus, even! – of the main ingredient, called solids-non-fat. The Canadian government allocated $333-million over 10 years in the 2023 budget to figure out what to do with it. What we need, quite obviously, is robust and diversified domestic production, which will both bring down costs and help insulate us from supply chain or other foreign disruptions. But there are significant barriers to entry: stringent regulations on marketing and production, the high cost of scale, high tariffs on imports of Canadian formula set out in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) and so on. As a result, only one domestic manufacturer is set to start distributing formula soon: a foreign-owned factory in Kingston, Ont., called Canada Royal Milk, which was created by Chinese investment company Feihe International (with $24-million from the Ontario government and an undisclosed amount from the federal government). The factory, which was besieged by claims of unsafe working conditions in 2021, gained approval to start selling its formula back in March.
Will it help things? Maybe. (Though the formula has been approved by Health Canada and the CFIA, parents might be wary of buying it because of the 2008 tainted formula scandal in China). But infants needing hypoallergenic formula, of which there are only a couple available in Canada, won’t benefit from the new supply. Canadian parents of those babies still occasionally have trouble finding what they need. On top of that, the price of formula in Canada has soared a whopping 56 per cent, according to Statistics Canada, from February, 2022, to July, 2024.
The problem for Canadian parents is exacerbated by a lack of generic options. One U.S.-based company, Perrigo, had been manufacturing all the generic options available in Canada: Parent’s Choice for Walmart, President’s Choice for Loblaw, and Kirkland brand for Costco. But now, Parent’s Choice and President’s Choice formulas have seemingly disappeared from store shelves (and from Perrigo’s website) and Kirkland formula is only now starting to reappear in Canadian Costcos after months of unavailability. (Perrigo did not respond to my request for comment by deadline). Formula-feeding parents thus have to try and find a product that is 1) available, 2) affordable and 3) one that their baby will tolerate. The lucky ones get two out of three.
Years after the initial shortage, Canada shouldn’t still be having these problems. But it’s an issue suffering a dire lack of attention (our population is growing, but not by natural births), of ignorance (from people who don’t understand the complex nature of the human body and think mothers should simply breastfeed), of a lack of empathy (on the part of those who think parents who can’t afford formula shouldn’t be parents), and a lack of a consistent lobby. Indeed, the best advocates for change are often those who are affected directly. But parents in the throes of newborn life typically don’t have the time or energy to lobby the government. Their personal interest is also a transient one: after 12 months or so, they can stop thinking about the price and availability of formula.
But the rest of us shouldn’t. Canadian parents should not still be experiencing difficulties finding affordable infant formula. We need to start making more at home.