GENEVA- A new World Health Organization (WHO)/Unicef report has detailed exploitative practices employed by the R800-billion milk formula industry, compromising child nutrition and violating international commitments.
The report, “How marketing of formula milk influences our decisions on infant feeding”, draws on interviews with parents, pregnant women and health workers in eight countries, including South Africa.
The WHO said it uncovered systematic and unethical marketing strategies used by the formula milk industry – now worth a staggering $55bn (R800bn) – to influence parents’ infant feeding decisions.
The report found that industry marketing techniques included unregulated and invasive online targeting; sponsored advice networks and helplines; promotions and gifts; and practices to influence training and recommendations among health workers.
The messages that parents and health workers receive are often misleading, scientifically unsubstantiated, and violate the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes (the Code) – a landmark public health agreement passed by the World Health Assembly in 1981 to protect mothers from aggressive marketing practices by the baby food industry.
“This report shows very clearly that formula milk marketing remains unacceptably pervasive, misleading and aggressive,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general.
“Regulations on exploitative marketing must be urgently adopted and enforced to protect children’s health.”
According to the report – which surveyed 8 500 parents and pregnant women, and 300 health workers in cities across Bangladesh, China, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, the UK and Vietnam – exposure to formula milk marketing reaches 84% of all women surveyed in the UK, 92% of women surveyed in Vietnam and 97% of women surveyed in China, increasing their likelihood of choosing formula feeding.
“False and misleading messages about formula feeding are a substantial barrier to breast-feeding, which we know is best for babies and mothers,” said Unicef executive director Catherine Russell.
“We need robust policies, legislation and investments in breast-feeding to ensure that women are protected from unethical marketing practices – and have access to the information and support they need to raise their families.”
Across all countries included in the survey, women expressed a strong desire to breast-feed exclusively, ranging from 49% of women in Morocco to 98% in Bangladesh.
Yet the report details how a sustained flow of misleading marketing messages is reinforcing myths about breast-feeding and breast milk, and undermining women’s confidence in their ability to breast-feed successfully.
These myths include the necessity of formula in the first days after birth, the inadequacy of breast milk for infant nutrition, that specific infant formula ingredients are proven to improve child development or immunity, the perception that formula keeps infants fuller for longer, and that the quality of breast milk declines with time.
Breast-feeding within the first hour of birth, followed by exclusive breast-feeding for six months and continued breast-feeding for up to two years or beyond, offers a powerful line of defence against all forms of child malnutrition, including wasting and obesity.
Breast-feeding also acts as babies’ first vaccine, protecting them against many common childhood illnesses.
It also reduces women’s future risk of diabetes, obesity and some forms of cancer.
Yet globally, only 44% of babies less than 6 months old are exclusively breast-fed.
Global breast-feeding rates have increased very little in the past two decades, while sales of formula milk have more than doubled in roughly the same time.
Alarmingly, the report notes that large numbers of health workers in all countries had been approached by the baby-feeding industry to influence their recommendations to new mothers through promotional gifts, free samples, funding for research, paid meetings, events and conferences, and even commissions from sales, directly impacting parents’ feeding choices.
More than one third of women surveyed said a health worker had recommended a specific brand of formula to them.
To address these challenges, WHO, Unicef and partners are calling on governments, health workers and the baby food industry to end exploitative formula milk marketing and fully implement and abide by the Code requirements.
This includes:
- Passing, monitoring and enforcing laws to prevent the promotion of formula milk, in line with the Code, including prohibiting nutrition and health claims made by the formula milk industry
- Investing in policies and programmes to support breast-feeding, including adequate paid parental leave in line with international standards, and ensuring high-quality breast-feeding support
- Requesting industry to publicly commit to full compliance with the Code and subsequent World Health Assembly resolutions globally
- Banning health workers from accepting sponsorship from companies that market foods for infants and young children for scholarships, awards, grants, meetings or events.
Cape Times