Nestle is in talks with US on more formula shipments, CEO says

Nestle SA is in talks with the US to deliver more baby formula after the world’s largest food company helped kick off emergency shipments amid a national shortage.

“It’s not only shipping from here, but also from other places into the US,” Chief Executive Officer Mark Schneider said on the sidelines of a sustainability event in Flaach, Switzerland. He declined to specify where else the formula might originate. “This is an ongoing effort.”

US authorities are in the middle of an emergency program dubbed Operation Fly Formula to address the shortfall. The crisis escalated in February when Abbott Laboratories, the largest supplier of powdered formula, announced a voluntary recall and closed a plant after four infants fell ill.

“When the US offered, under Operation Fly Formula, to really give all the expertise and the logistics muscle of the US Air Force to it, we were eager to engage with that,” Schneider said.