When a whistleblower sent a 34-page report to the Food and Drug Administration in October alleging a host of unsanitary conditions at an Abbott infant formula factory, the top official in charge of food safety didn’t see it.
In fact, Frank Yiannas, the FDA’s deputy commissioner for food policy and response, didn’t learn about the complaint until four months later, according to Yiannas and others knowledgeable about the case.
By that time, one infant had already died and two others were hospitalized after consuming formula from the plant — all while other top FDA officials less-versed in food safety had elected not to send new inspectors to the plant in Sturgis, Mich. As another infant death was linked to Abbott-produced formula, the plant closed down and a recall was issued, sparking a critical national shortage of baby formula.
“It wasn’t sent to me and it wasn’t shared with me internally. How does this happen?” Yiannas, who previously ran the food safety program for Walmart, the nation’s largest grocer, told The Washington Post. “There were early signals and in any safety profession you want to take those seriously to stop the domino effect. That didn’t happen.”
The national fallout over the Abbott case has exposed a fractured structure at an agency that has long prioritized drugs and medicine over food safety, experts say — a problem exemplified by its handling of the whistleblower complaint and other warning signs of problems at the plant.
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