Over 50% of surveyed parents, pregnant women exposed to aggressive formula milk marketing: WHO-UNICEF study
India Today
New report details exploitative practices employed by the $55-billion formula industry, compromising child nutrition, 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. It uncovers systematic and unethical marketing strategies used by the formula milk industry - now worth a staggering $55 billion - to influence parents' infant feeding decisions.
The report finds that industry marketing techniques include 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.
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"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 United Kingdom, and Vietnam - exposure to formula milk marketing reached 84 percent of all women surveyed in the United Kingdom; 92 percent of women surveyed in Vietnam and 97 percent of women surveyed in China, increasing their likelihood of choosing formula feeding.
"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.
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