Baby formula under lock and key at some Halifax-area drug stores

Baby formula is now being kept behind glass at some Shoppers Drug Mart locations in the Halifax area because the price ofthe product has skyrocketed.

Loblaws owns the pharmacy chain and has not yet responded to CBC'srequest for comment on the reasoning behind the move. But staff at these locations say it's because of theft; people are ripping off the security tags and walking out the door.

"I'm not surprised at all," Lesley Frank, a Canada Research chair in food, health and social justice at Acadia University, told CBC's Mainstreet Halifax in an interview on Thursday.

Frank said stores locking up goods has been going on for at least the last seven years and that it's a common thing to see in larger cities like Toronto. But she said this is the first she's hearing of it in Halifax.

"What it is signaling, of course, is the theft that's occurring or they're trying to mitigate the theft that they think might occur," Frank said.

The cost of infant formula has become less affordable over the years. Prices soared higher than inflation last year and shortages continued to be a problem.

Why formula is getting more expensive

Frank said the price started to increase during the COVID-19 pandemic when there were supply-chain disruptions, shortages due to plant closures in the U.S., as well as the war in Ukraine because Ukraine is a leading producer of sunflower, which is an ingredient in the formula.

Frank was recently part of a survey at Acadia called Feeding in the Early Years in Nova Scotia which questionedfamilies with children under the age of two about food insecurity.

"There's a whole host of possible things that happen when you can't afford infant formula. And one of them was, well, fourper cent of our respondents said that they actually stole formula from the store," she said.

"But other things happen, of course, like the risk of people having to water down their infant formula, skip feeding times, feed other things that wouldn't necessarily be recommended to be fed to a baby at a certain age."

Formula affordability isn't just an issue in Canada, the cost has also risen in the U.S. and U.K., Frank noted.

Frank said while parents in Nova Scotia have access to money through the Canada Child Benefit and the Nova Scotia Child Benefit, it isn't enough to address food insecurity in the early years.

'We should be ashamed of that in Canada'

"I would argue that babies, especially babies that are formula fed, are some of the most food insecure people in this country because that's the only thing they eat," Frank said.

"And if parents can't afford to buy it or if there are these shortages, crisis moments that keep it off the shelf, you have these two major problems working together that are making babies very vulnerable in Canada."

As a country, Frank doesn't think enough attention is being paid to the issue and that there isno targeted action for food access for babies.She said she considers it an under-the-radar public health crisis.

"What does this mean when I see formula behind a locked box behind glass? Well, that's what the understory is, right? You know, how did we get there? How did we get to being a society wherepeople can't afford the one item that they need to feed their baby? We should be ashamed of that in Canada, a high-income country. There's no good reason for it."

Baby formula kept behind glass in some Halifax stores as prices soar

9 months ago

Duration 6:39

Lesley Frank is a Canada Research chair in food, health and social justice at Acadia University. While she's not surprised to see infant formula behind glass, she said there is no targeted action for food access for babies in Canada.