Nestle Term Paper

Q 1

Baby Milk Action Comment on Nestle’s Infant Feeding Policy and Sustainability Review

This paper was presented to a hearing into Nestlé conducted by the Women's Group of the Parliamentary Labour Party at the House of Commons on 1st May 2002

Click here to download this briefing paper as a pdf file

Breastfeeding is an essential lifeline for millions of infants, which provides optimal nutrition, confers benefits to women's health, has no adverse effects on the environment and can reduce family poverty, which is a major cause of malnutrition. Breastfeeding saves lives. But breastmilk has to compete in a rapidly growing market for breastmilk substitutes, now worth $10.9 billion. (Euromonitor 2001). The International Code, WHA Resolutions, and any policies which seek to protect breastfeeding and ensure breastmilk substitutes are marketed responsibly, challenge and limit this growth and have been opposed by companies since their inception.

Nestlé, the world’s largest food company, markets over 11,000 brands of processed foods, and controls aprox 40% of the baby food market. Nestlé’s 2001 Annual Report states, "Infant nutrition is a truly global Nestle business and sales grew vigorously in all regions of the world."

Nestlé exerts a powerful influence on governments and it affects market trends and company behaviour more than any other single company. Nestle has been dogged by criticism of its baby food marketing policy and practice for over two decades, and more recently about its impact on the environment. Because of this Nestle has curbed some of its more blatant malpractice, removing pictures of babies on infant formula tins and stopping some media advertising. However, worldwide independent monitoring consistently shows that the company systematically violates the International Code and Resolutions, promoting its products in many ways which harm infant health and at the same time lobbying for weak legislation and trading standards. The few incidences where Nestle...