Large global corporations are taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to aggressively promote baby formula, playing on mothers’ fears of transmitting coronavirus through breastfeeding, the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) has warned.
Nestlé baby formula has been distributed as part of COVID-19 relief efforts in Pakistan and India, despite laws and global health rules restricting donations.
Other large companies have been running digital ads for baby formula across the world that draw on parents’ worries about “viruses” and promote industry-sponsored COVID-19 advice groups for parents, despite bans on direct marketing.
There is currently no evidence that COVID-19 can be transmitted through breastfeeding, and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that all women, including those infected with COVID-19, should breastfeed their babies.
A recent report from the WHO, Unicef and IBFAN warns that many countries are “failing to stop the harmful promotion of breast-milk substitutes”.
“The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the need for stronger legislation to protect families from false claims about the safety of breast-milk substitutes or aggressive marketing practices,” says the report.
Violations during the pandemic
The WHO’s International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, adopted by the World Health Assembly in 1981, recommends a ban on the promotion of baby formula and that formula marketers should have no access to pregnant women or mothers of babies and small children.
Since the adoption of the code, 136 countries have passed laws curtailing the promotion of formula. India outlaws the promotion of all infant formula and foods to children under the age of two and prohibits its donation except to orphanages, while various Pakistani states including Punjab and Sindh have endorsed all aspects of the code and enacted local regulations in support.
The European Union tightened its regulations in April, restricting formula advertising to “publications specialising in baby care and scientific publications” and prohibiting the distribution of samples, or free or cheap products, either directly to consumers or indirectly or via healthcare workers.
Despite these global, national and local regulations, there have been a number of violations during the pandemic.
New evidence has emerged that Nestlé’s Lactogrow brand has been distributed to needy families in Pakistan and India. A tweet on 4 May from the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) of Punjab in Pakistan thanked Nestlé Pakistan for donating products including Lactogrow to “families whose income has been impacted due to #lockdown”. This was retweeted by Nestlé Pakistan the same day.
Print
Kerry Cullinan | Radio Free (2020-06-25T08:10:10+00:00) Infant formula companies are ‘exploiting’ COVID-19 pandemic. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2020/06/25/infant-formula-companies-are-exploiting-covid-19-pandemic/
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