Baby formula makers still breaking global marketing rules - report

China Mengniu Dairy

22/02/2022 23:30

By Jennifer Rigby
    LONDON, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Almost all parents and pregnant
women in China, Vietnam and the UK are exposed to “aggressive”
formula milk marketing campaigns that breach global rules set up
after scandals more than 40 years ago, according to a new
report.
    The marketing techniques can push women away from
breastfeeding and include everything from giving free samples,
to executives setting up or joining "mums' groups" on popular
messaging apps, the report from the World Health Organization
(WHO), UNICEF and M&C Saatchi said. 
    Health workers are also targeted, with gifts, funding for
research and even commission from sales, all practices that are
banned under international guidelines for the marketing of
formula milk. 
    The WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding for newborns,
where possible, as the healthier option.
    The report's authors and several external experts said it
was time to reform the International Code of Marketing of
Breast-milk Substitutes. The code was set up by WHO in 1981 in a
bid to regulate the industry after scandals in the 1970s when
Nestle was accused of discouraging mothers, particularly in
developing countries, from breastfeeding. 
    Nigel Rollins, lead author of the report and a WHO
scientist, told Reuters in an interview: "Are there areas for
strengthening the code? Unquestionably." 
    Formula milk and tobacco are the only two products for which
there are international guidelines to prevent marketing. 
    Despite this, only 25 countries have fully implemented the
code into legislation, and over the last four decades, sales of
formula milk have more than doubled, while breastfeeding rates
have only slightly increased, the WHO said. The formula milk
industry is now worth $55 billion annually.
    The report found that more than half of the 8,500 parents
across the eight countries surveyed - Bangladesh, China, Mexico,
Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Vietnam –
reported exposure to marketing, much of which was in breach of
the code. 
    Titled "How marketing of formula milk influences our
decisions on infant feeding", the report also included
interviews with marketing executives and 300 health workers, and
is the largest of its kind. 
    In China, 97% of women surveyed had been exposed to formula
milk marketing; in the UK it was 84% and in Vietnam, 92%. More
than a third of women across all of the countries said that
health workers had recommended a specific brand of formula to
them.
    While the code allows factual informational about formula to
be provided, and the authors acknowledged the importance of
formula milk for women who cannot or do not want to breastfeed,
they said the marketing practices were a key reason for low
breastfeeding rates worldwide.
    The WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding for at least the
first six months of life, but at the moment, only 44% of babies
this age are fed this way. 
    A major study in 2016 https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(15)01024-7.pdf
 suggested more than 800,000 babies’ lives could be saved
annually if breastfeeding rates improved to reach this
milestone.  
    "False and misleading messages about formula feeding are a
substantial barrier to breastfeeding, which we know is best for
babies and mothers," said UNICEF executive director Catherine
Russell in a statement. 
    Rollins said digital marketing in particular needs work,
because of the potential for personalised targeted messaging and
because it is now a major area of expansion for formula milk
companies, alongside milks for older children and milks for
allergies. 
    In a statement on behalf of the companies, the International
Special Dietary Foods Industries (ISDI) said its members
complied with all laws and regulations in the countries in which
they operate. 
    "Our members support efforts by national governments to
ensure compliance with all national laws and regulations. Our
members are ready to work together with all stakeholders to
support optimal infant health and well-being," it added. 
    The WHO declined to comment on individual companies, and
does not name them in the report, but said that there were no
substantial differences between their practices. 
    However, an index https://accesstonutrition.org/infant-and-young-child-nutrition
 compiled by the Access to Nutrition Initiative in 2021 found
that some companies were more compliant with the code than
others: for example, Danone's marketing is 68% in line with the
rules, and Nestle, 57%. However, three of the leading companies
operating in China – Feihe, Mengniu and Yili – all scored zero. 
    External experts said that wider reform was needed to bring
all companies, and countries, into line, as well as tougher
punishments for those who break or skirt the rules.
    Gerard Hastings, emeritus professor of marketing at the
University of Stirling, Scotland, said regulators like the Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) should be more involved. 
    "We need to rethink how to actually make it (the code) work,
so that it can be enforced much more strongly," he told Reuters.
    "These agencies really need to go back to the drawing board
and think of infant formula products in the same way as you
would think of drugs."

 (Reporting by Jennifer Rigby; Additional reporting by Silke
Koltrowitz in Zurich, Dominique Vidalon, Toby Sterling, Manas
Mishtra and Sophie Yu 
Editing by Josephine Mason and Nick Macfie)
 ((Jennifer.Rigby@thomsonreuters.com;))