An award-winning Kendal baby milk producer has been called upon by the White House to ship to the US, setting a worldwide precedent.

Kendamil, which is manufactured by Kendal Nutricare on Mint Bridge Road in Kendal, is the only infant formula produced in the United Kingdom, and is the first international producer to gain approval to ship into the United States to help support their current shortages.

These are the first Operation Formula Flight to be donated by an airline carrier, and will contain 3.7 million 8-ounce bottle equivalents of Kendamil infant formula.

They will begin shipping on June 9.

President Biden has announced that his Administration has arranged the third Operation Fly Formula flight for the first shipment of Kendamil infant formula entering the United States. 

United Airlines has agreed to transport Kendamil formula free of charge from Heathrow Airport in London to multiple airports across the country over a three-week period. 

Kendal Nutricare was among the first to respond to the FDA's call for assistance from international manufacturers.

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The factory in Kendal is capable of producing around 10 million cans of 900g formula per year and though today is operating at around 50 per cent of its total capacity, given exponential demand from the UK, Europe, Asia and now the US, plans are in place to more than double the site’s capacity by 2024.

Kendamil won a raft of awards in 2021, including Gold at the Mother and Baby Awards or Best Product for Bottle Feeding, and consumers in the US will soon be able to buy the formula through Target stores across the country.

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The US Government launched Operation Fly Formula to speed up the import of infant formula and start getting more formula to stores as soon as possible, because, at the start of May, 43 per cent of baby formula was out of stock at retailers, according to Datasembly, a product data firm.

Under Operation Fly Formula, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services are authorized to use Department of Defense contracted commercial aircraft to pick up overseas infant formula that meets US health and safety standards, so it can get to store shelves faster. 

In addition, the Biden Administration has taken a number of other actions to ensure there is enough safe infant formula for families, including invoking the Defense Production Act, entering into a consent agreement between the FDA to reopen Abbott Nutrition's Sturgis facility, and issuing FDA guidance so that major formula manufacturers can safely import formula that is not currently being produced for the U.S. market.