As US crawls out of baby formula crisis, troubled plant floods, shuts down again

Enlarge / The Abbott manufacturing facility in Sturgis, Michigan, on May 13, 2022. (credit: Getty | Jeff Kowalsky)

As the US struggles to recover from a dire infant formula shortage, the Abbott formula plant at the center of the crisis has again shut down—this time due to flooding from heavy rain on Monday.

The plant in Sturgis, Michigan, is the largest formula factory in the US and is operated by Abbott, one of the largest formula manufacturers in the county. The facility had previously shut down in February, driving a nationwide shortage of infant and specialty formulas to a critical point, but had managed to reopen on June 4.

The February closure occurred as the Food and Drug Administration investigated severe bacterial infections in four infants, two of whom died. All of the infants had consumed formula from the plant, and FDA investigators found that the same kind of bacteria infecting the infants—Cronobacter sakazakii—was also lurking in multiple areas of the plant. Although data was limited on each of the infants' cases, at least one container of formula from the plant tested positive for the strain of Cronobacter sakazakii infecting one of the infants.