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NGOs flay Nestlé's infant formula strategy

BANGKOK, Thailand (IRIN) – International NGOs in Laos have stepped up their criticism of what they describe as Nestlé’s unethical marketing of infant formula.

“Some of the marketing strategy presents formula as better than breastfeeding,” Laurence Gray, World Vision’s Asia-Pacific advocacy director, told IRIN. “It doesn’t take into account the circumstances needed to prepare the formula.”

A month ago,’ leading Laos-based international NGOs, including Save the Children, Oxfam, CARE International, Plan International and World Vision, announced plans to boycott Nestlé’s 2012 competition for a prize of almost half a million US dollars for outstanding innovation in water, nutrition, or rural development projects.

Both the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) advocate exclusive breastfeeding for children up to six months of age – and continued breastfeeding and complementary feeding until age two.

However, infant formula is not considered unsafe in developed countries.

“When mothers cannot breastfeed, infant formula is the only product recognized by the WHO as a safe and nutritious breast-milk substitute,” Ferhat Soygenis, senior corporate affairs manager and a spokesman for Nestlé, told IRIN.

But in developing countries, formula is frequently prepared in unhygienic circumstances with unsafe water and misunderstood instructions.

“In poor nations, formula-fed infants are four to six times more likely to die of infectious disease than breastfed babies,” said Gray. “The problem is not with the formula, but with the preparation,” he added.

Open letter

In an open letter to the company on 24 May, the organizations taking part in the boycott outlined how the company had violated the’81 International Code of Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes.

“We won’t be applying for your prize money, Nestlé. Your marketing of formula milk still jeopardizes the health of infants and children in Laos,” begins the letter.

The letter is the latest development in an ongoing battle between Nestlé and child health groups that began in’77 and is waged across the villages and markets of developing countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, and now Laos.

“Nestlé has mastered the art of marketing formula products with many forms of deceptive advertising in Laos and countries throughout the world,” said the letter’s co-author Leila Srour, who works in Laos with Health Frontiers.

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