Save the Children exposes companies violating the baby milk code

A generation on from one of the biggest public boycotts in corporate history, almost 1.4 million children are still dying every year because they are not getting enough of their mother's milk. Save the Children has found that despite a UN approved code to regulate the marketing of baby milk and food, manufacturers continue to make a mockery of the rules and are still promoting their products unethically without sanction - a major part of the problem. Download a copy here

Globally, improving breastfeeding rates could save the lives of almost 3,800 children a day. In Bangladesh alone it could cut infant mortality by one third saving the lives of 314 children every day from killer diseases such as diarrhoea and pneumonia.

The findings are revealed as Save the Children calls on the public to challenge all companies who manufacture breast milk substitutes, and put children before profits. It has been 25 years since a UN approved code to restrict the promotion of substitute baby milk and food was introduced, but with no proper monitoring or more stringent laws, the violations will continue.

Margaret Douglas, Save the Children Australia CEO said: "It's incomprehensible why - when we know that breastfeeding can make the single biggest contribution to a baby's survival - that companies, for over 25 years, have been allowed to flout a UN approved code with little fear of retribution."

 

Save the Children's research into violations of the code revealed:

• All companies still openly market certain baby foods and drink (e.g. flavoured baby water and juices) to babies from four months - contravening WHO guidance, which recommends exclusive breastfeeding until six months
• Supermarkets and pharmacies violate the code by undercutting each other's prices through promotions and low pricing. These account for almost three quarters of all sales of baby milk substitutes.
• Telephone support lines and increasingly websites are all used to reach mothers - a type of indirect promotion banned by the code.

Save the Children is calling for:

• All manufacturers to stop violating the code
• Government to go further in tightening the legislation on the promotion of breast milk substitutes and to increase funding for the promotion of breastfeeding
• The WHO to be bolder in ensuring companies are held to account and regularly monitored for code compliance
• UNICEF to ensure that compliance with the Code becomes a measure of progress on countries' implementation of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child.

For more information contact Sharyn Hanly: +61 3 9938 2011 or Mob: 0418 560 810

Download the full media release here [Adobe PDF, 103 Kb]

Download a copy of the report compiled by Save the Children UK here [Adobe PDF, 123 Kb]

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