Nestlé under fire for ‘misleading’ baby milk tactics in Hong Kong and beyond

The Swiss multinational Nestlé has been accused of violating ethical marketing codes and manipulating customers of its baby milk formulas around the world, with its supposedly misleading claims to Hong Kong consumers drawing particular scrutiny.

A new report by the Changing Markets Foundation has found that Nestlé marketed its infant milk formulas as “closest to”, “inspired by” and “following the example of” human breast milk in several countries, despite a prohibition by the UN’s World Health Organisation (WHO).

The study, which analysed over 70 Nestlé baby milk products in 40 countries, also found that Nestlé often ignored its own nutritional advice in its advertising.

Formulas sold in Hong Kong were marketed as being free of sucrose “for baby’s good health”, while in South Africa, the firm used sucrose in infant milk formulas.

In Hong Kong, it promoted some varieties of its baby milk powders as healthier because they were free from vanilla flavourings – even as it sold other vanilla-flavoured formulas elsewhere in the territory.

Nusa Urbancic, campaigns director for the Changing Markets Foundation said: “We have come to understand that companies manipulate consumers’ emotional responses to sell a variety of products, but this behaviour is especially unethical when it comes to the health of vulnerable babies.

“If the science is clear that an ingredient is safe and beneficial for babies then such ingredients should be in all products. If an ingredient is not healthy, such as sucrose, then it should be in no products. Nestlé’s inconsistency on this point calls into serious question whether it is committed to science, as it professes to be.”