Speaker claiming to be Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announces "Operation Stork Speed" to study infant formula

A speaker who identified himself as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a recording that he would direct the Food and Drug Administration to launch "Operation Stork Speed," a program he described to study infant formula ingredients and increase safety testing.

"That's why I'm directing the FDA to launch Operation Stork Speed," the speaker said in the recording. He added, "We're gonna make American infant formula the gold standard for the world. Produced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services."

The speaker said the initiative would review ingredients in infant formulas — naming "corn syrup solids" and "seed oils" — and increase the frequency of testing for contaminants including heavy metals. He also said current federal guidelines governing infant nutrition "were put in place in 1998" and that "the science of human nutrition has progressed" since then. The recording includes the speaker saying he met with the "CEOs of all the top infant formula manufacturers" who, he said, "are united in support of this initiative."

The recording presents these statements as directives, but it does not provide independent evidence in the excerpted material that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or the Food and Drug Administration issued an official order or published implementing guidance. The speaker identified himself in the recording; the transcript does not include a formal document, agency announcement, or signed directive attached to the recording.

The remarks focus on three stated priorities: reviewing commonly used ingredients, increasing contaminant testing, and updating federal guidance. The recording did not specify a timeline for reviews or testing, detail which specific contaminants beyond "heavy metals" would be targeted, or identify any regulatory mechanism (rulemaking, guidance, inspection regime) by which the changes would be implemented. Funding sources and statutory authorities for the proposed work were not specified in the recording.

Because the recording contains a claim of direction to the FDA, readers should treat the statement as an announced intention in the recording rather than documented agency action unless confirmed by the agencies involved. The Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services are named in the recording; neither agency action nor an official HHS announcement appears in the provided transcript excerpt.