The World Health Organization and the UN children's agency Unicef warned, in a new report rebuked baby formula makers for "unethical" marketing strategies, accusing them of aggressively targeting expecting parents and health workers and putting shareholder interests before children's health.
It found that the $55-billion formula milk industry systematically deploys aggressive marketing strategies, spending up to $5 billion a year to sway parents' decisions on how to feed their infants.
Many countries' failure to crack down on the marketing of breast milk substitutes means far too many children are still being reared on formula. It is widely recognised that breastfeeding carries huge health benefits. Experts have long extolled the health benefits of breastfeeding, saying that breast-fed children are healthier, perform better on intelligence tests and are less likely to be overweight or suffer from diabetes later in life. Women who breastfeed also have a reduced risk of breast and ovarian cancer, research shows.
Despite the known benefits, only 44 percent of babies under the age of six months are exclusively breastfed, as recommended by the WHO and Unicef. In the past two decades, the sale of formula milk has more than doubled.
Lead report author Nigel Rollins, of the WHO's maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health division, blamed the industry's aggressive marketing practices. Rollins pointed to how companies use pseudoscience to suggest that breast milk is not enough on its own or that formula does a better job of helping babies to sleep through the night.
"This report shows very clearly that formula milk marketing remains unacceptably pervasive, misleading and aggressive," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
UN slams 'aggressive' formula milk marketing (france24.com)
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