black and white image of a young infant drinking milk from a bottle

Infant Formula Companies Put Profit Before Science

A new international investigation has revealed a shocking lack of science behind the infant formula ranges sold by baby milk companies – and some questionable marketing practices as well.

Exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life – a practice recommended by every health organisation in the world – provides a baby with everything it needs to grow and thrive. Not just nutrition, but hundreds of non-nutrient factors which cannot be synthesised in the lab and which help protect against illness and promote optimal growth.

November 8, 2017 | Source: The Ecologist | by Pat Thomas

A new report from UK-based Changing Markets Foundation reveals how formula milk manufacturers add unnecessary ingredients with no proven benefits – all to ramp up the prices. PAT THOMAS reports.

A new international investigation has revealed a shocking lack of science behind the infant formula ranges sold by baby milk companies – and some questionable marketing practices as well.

Exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life – a practice recommended by every health organisation in the world – provides a baby with everything it needs to grow and thrive. Not just nutrition, but hundreds of non-nutrient factors which cannot be synthesised in the lab and which help protect against illness and promote optimal growth.

Nutritional science 

For those women who don’t or can’t breastfeed, being able to trust that infant formula is providing the best possible nutrition is very important.

But a new report, Milking It, from the non-profit, UK-based Changing Markets Foundation notes that while there is a single global standard for what ingredients should be in infant formula, the top 4 manufacturers, Nestlé, Danone, Mead Johnson Nutrition (recently acquired by Reckitt Benckiser), and Abbott sell a mind-boggling number – more than 400 individual products – between them globally.

Too often, according to the report, manufacturers add unnecessary ingredients with no proven benefits – so that they can charge a premium price for their products. This isn’t illegal but it is unethical and in breach of a voluntary World Health Organization code on the marketing of breastmilk substitutes.

Added fats, pre- and pro-biotics and certain nutrients, may make more plausable manufacturers’ claims to make formula which is closer to breastmilk, represents the latest developments in nutritional science, or satisfies hungrier babies, to promote better digestion, or to aid sleep.

But, says the report: “There is little nutritional science and few beneficial health considerations behind their extensive product ranges.”