NEW STUDY CALLS FOR CRACKDOWN ON ‘EXPLOITATIVE’ FORMULA MILK MARKETING

Wed 08 February 2023:

A new three-paper series published in The Lancet has called for a clampdown on the formula milk industry’s marketing tactics, calling them “exploitative”. The paper says that misleading claims and political interference need to be tackled on an urgent basis as these seriously jeopardise the health and rights of women and children.

“This new research highlights the vast economic and political power of the big formula milk companies, as well as serious public policy failures that prevent millions of women from breastfeeding their children,” said Professor Nigel Rollins, Scientist at WHO and author of a paper on formula milk marketing.

“Actions are needed across different areas of society to better support mothers to breastfeed for as long as they want, alongside efforts to tackle exploitative formula milk marketing once and for all.”

Dairy and formula milk industries are pushing their agendas through misleading marketing claims and strategic lobbying, further creating a sense of anxiety around breastfeeding and infant care, the papers say.

The first paper talks about how misleading marketing claims prey on parental anxieties around normal infant behaviours. These companies try to push the theory that commercial milk products help with issues like fussiness or crying, help with colic, and prolong night-time sleep. The authors stress that with proper support, such parental concerns can be managed successfully with exclusive breastfeeding.

“The formula milk industry uses poor science to suggest, with little supporting evidence, that their products are solutions to common infant health and developmental challenges,” says Professor Linda Richter from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. “This marketing technique clearly violates the 1981 Code, which says labels should not idealise the use of formula to sell more product.”

The papers further say that formula milk marketing exploits the lack of support for breastfeeding by governments and society and misuses gender politics to sell its products.

Breast milk is packed with several nutritional benefits for babies and young children. Breastmilk helps children survive and develop to their full potential, reduces the risk of infections and lowers rates of obesity and chronic diseases in later life.

But, according to World Health Organization (WHO), globally, only around one in two newborns are put to the breast within the first hour of life. Further, fewer than half of infants under six months are exclusively breastfed, contrary to WHO recommendations.

The Lancet series underlines greater support for breastfeeding within healthcare and social protection systems. It says that new mothers should be given sufficient paid maternity leave to help support their breastfeeding journey.

A whopping 650 million women currently lack adequate maternity protections, the papers say.

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