Formula Milk Companies’ Exploitive Tactics to undermine Breastfeeding: Lancet

 In another example of Medical Industry exploiting masses by false projection of Modern Medicine, 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.

       The CMF industry generates revenues of about $55 billion annually, with about $3 billion spent on marketing activities every year,” stated a Lancet editorial. The series details how marketing practices in violation of the voluntary Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, developed by the World Health Assembly in 1981, have continued in nearly 100 countries and in every region of the world since the adoption of the code more than forty years ago.

      A Lancet series on breastfeeding details strategies used by commercial formula manufacturers to undermine breastfeeding to turn the feeding of infants and young children into a multibillion-dollar business generating revenues of about $55 billion each year.

      Lancet has issued an urgent call to protect breastfeeding. Formula milk marketing tactics are exploitative, and regulations need to be urgently strengthened and properly implemented, the three-paper series argued. The authors of the series argue that apart from influencing political organisations, formula milk companies also draw on credibility of science by sponsoring professional organisations, publishing sponsored articles in scientific journals, and inviting leaders in public health onto advisory boards and committees, leading to unacceptable conflicts of interest.

     “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. Adverts claim specialised formulas alleviate fussiness, help with colic, prolong night-time sleep, and even encourage superior intelligence. Labels use words like ‘brain’, ‘neuro’ and ‘IQ’ with images highlighting early development, but studies show no benefit of these product ingredients on academic performance or long-term cognition,” stated Professor Linda Richter, Wits University, South Africa. “Breastfeeding has proven health benefits across high-income and low-income settings alike: it reduces childhood infectious diseases, mortality, and malnutrition, and the risk of later obesity; mothers who breastfeed have decreased risk of breast and ovarian cancers, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. However, less than 50% of babies worldwide are breastfed according to the WHO recommendations, resulting in economic losses of nearly US$350 billion each year. Meanwhile, the CMF industry generates revenues of about $55 billion annually, with about $3 billion spent on marketing activities every year,” stated a Lancet editorial. The series details how marketing practices in violation of the voluntary Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, developed by the World Health Assembly in 1981, have continued in nearly 100 countries and in every region of the world since the adoption of the code more than forty years ago. The series says that voluntary uptake of the Code is not enough and calls for an international legal treaty on the commercial marketing of food products for babies to protect the health and wellbeing of mothers and families. “Only 32 countries have legal measures that substantially align with the Code. A further 41 countries have legislation that moderately aligns with the Code and 50 have no legal measures at all. As a result, the Code is regularly flouted without penalty,” pointed out the editorial. An analysis in the series describes how profits made by the formula milk industry benefit companies located in high-income countries while the social, economic and environmental harms are widely distributed and most harmful in low and middle income countries. The authors stress that breastfeeding is a collective responsibility of society and call for more effective promotion, support and protection for breastfeeding, including a much better trained healthcare workforce and an international legal treaty to end exploitative formula milk marketing and prohibit political lobbying.

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