41st CODEX ALIMENTARIUS COMMISSION FAO Headquarters, Rome, Italy. 2-6 July 2018 REPORT See Consultation Page for our latest submission on the proposed structure for a revised Follow-up Formula Standard. The 41st meeting of the WHO/FAO Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) – the…
What’s all the fuss about? Q&A on 2018 World Health Assembly
CLICK HERE for more on the media coverage CLICK HERE for the Consensus Text shared with Member States on 14th May. CLICK HERE for the Draft Resolution proposed by the Russian Federation and published by WHO on 22nd May: (A71/A/CONF/4), …
New concerns about Soy formulas
New Concerns about soy-based formulas. Babies fed soy-based formula have changes in reproductive system tissues CHOP co-author of NIH-led study: Subtle estrogen-like responses in infants point to need for longer-term follow-up of effects March 12, 2018, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia…
French salmonella baby milk scandal ‘affects 83 countries’
French salmonella baby milk scandal ‘affects 83 countries’ 14th January 2017 CLICK HERE for the BBC World Service interview with Alison Linnecar, IBFAN global working group on chemical and microbiological contamination of infant feeding products. (Click Here for the website) The…
French and US Trade delegations put child health at risk
CLICK HERE for PDF in Spanish French and US Trade delegations put child health at risk 39th Codex Alimentarius Nutrition Committee (CCNFSDU), Berlin, Germany 4th – 8th December 2017 The nutrition committee of the WHO/FAO Codex Alimentarius Commission – the UN body…
French Government calls for global withdrawal of Lactalis formulas
French Government calls for global withdrawal of Lactalis formulas. 14.12.2017 It took almost ten days for the Government of France to react to the scandal of widespread contamination of powdered formula milks produced by the giant French dairy producer Lactalis.…
New Codex Briefing: revision of Follow-up Formula Standard
New Codex Briefing IBFAN Follow-up Formula Briefing IBFAN’s Codex Working Group has prepared a briefing paper to highlight our recommendations for the revision of the Follow-up Formula Codex Standard (Codex Stan 156-1987) at the 39th Codex nutrition meeting to be held in…
Corporate power on show at the Conservative conference
Baby Milk Action is not aligned to any political party. Here are some of the notable things I spotted at the Conservative Conference in Manchester in October. Sugar and Nuclear power: With hardly any fringe events on health on the agenda, I was still…
EU MPS to debate safety on imports from Japan
STOP PRESS: CLICK HERE to hear the debate where MEPs voted in favour of the Resolution below. The Green Group of the European Parliament has proposed a Resolution about imports of food from Japan following the Fukushima disaster. The draft Motion…
Human Milk Banks – watch out for commercial exploitation.
The need for safeguards against commercial exploitation of Human Milk collection is explained in This new article by IBFAN’s Central Coordinator for Asia. India is planning a network of human breast-milk banks but first needs to put safeguards in place Breast-milk collected…
European Food Safety Authority reaffirms the need for strict controls
Latest science further protects infants The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published its final guidance on 31st May on the assessment needed for food for babies under the age of 16 weeks. Following a consultation EFSA maintains the requirement for an extended one…
UN/WHO panel in conflict of interest row over glyphosate cancer risk
UN/WHO panel in conflict of interest row over glyphosate cancer risk https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/17/unwho-panel-in-conflict-of-interest-row-over-glyphosates-cancer-risk Chairman of UN’s joint meeting on pesticide residues co-runs scientific institute which received donation from Monsanto, which uses glyphosate A UN panel that on Tuesday ruled that glyphosate…
Sugar in baby foods – where have we got to?
Last year the EU Parliament objected to the levels of sugar in baby food and called for baby foods to be labelled from 6 months. Below is the rough schedule for what will happen now. Certainly nothing very fast! On…
Ensuring correct messaging about breastfeeding in emergencies.
An example of messaging that can undermine breastfeeding and feed commonly held misconceptions. We are pleased that DEC has agreed to ensure that future appeals following our complaint about this full page appeal in the Guardian today. Disasters Emergency Appeal…
England, NI and Wales: Improvement Notices introduced today to enforce EU formula and baby food marketing rules – companies face criminal charges for non compliance
Baby Milk Action press release 20 July 2016 The UK Government and devolved authorities have today introduced Statutory Instruments updating formula and baby food marketing laws in line with new EU regulations. Although the Regulations fall far short of international minimum standards repeatedly…
Brexit and what it means for our work protecting infant and young child health
Click here to download this briefing as a pdf file. The UK has now voted in the referendum on its membership of the European Union (EU). There are pros and cons to any decision and one so momentous for the…
EU parliament slams aid scheme that uses big agribusiness to ‘feed Africa’
STOP PRESS CLICK HERE for yesterday’s vote in the EU Parliament slamming of the New Alliance Aid scheme CLICK HERE for IBFAN’s concerns about the role of business in the Scaling Up Nutrition initiative EU parliament slams aid scheme that uses big agribusiness…
European Parliament votes for big reductions in sugar in baby foods and prohibitions on labelling at too early an age.
CLICK HERE for the new DELEGATED ACTS Click Here for BMJ article. bmj.i553.full PRESS RELEASE European Parliament votes for big reductions in sugar in baby foods and prohibitions on labelling at too early an age. 20th January 2016 European Parliament, Strasbourg …
Act now to reduce sugar levels in baby foods
Update 20 January: This campaign was successful. Click here for details. Take action to contact your representatives in the European Parliament before 20 January to strengthen baby food marketing regulations. Here is a quick explanation and instructions on what to…
Opportunity for MEPs to protect child health and prevent obesity
CLICK HERE and HERE for media coverage CLICK HERE for Mike Brady’s Campaign Blog about how you can help stop the misleading adverts and bad marketing CLICK HERE for MEPs on the ENVI Committee. Please ask as many as…
Dietary public health research and the food industry. Towards a consensus?
I attended this conference in Cambridge, on Dietary public health research and the food industry on 11th December organised by the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (AUKCRC Public Health Research Centre of Excellence) Here is an article that followed: Limb_2015_foodLimb_2015_food Meanwhile…
IMPORTANT OPPORTUNITY TO IMPROVE EU LEGISLATION
IMPORTANT OPPORTUNITY TO PROTECT CHILD HEALTH CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE DEBATE that starts around 1 hour and 53 minutes after the start: On Monday 21st December there was an important debate in the European Parliament’s Environment, Public Health…
Brazilian law is signed at last
3rd November 2015 Very important news from Brazil: After many decades of deliberation and struggle by our IBFAN colleagues in Brazil, a Brazilian law that bans advertising of formulas, pacifiers, bottles and all products that can interfere on breastfeeding – Regulation 11265/2006…
Green Party opposition to the Delegated Acts
On 16th October the Green Party registered an objection to the three Delegated Acts. Commission Delegated Regulations of 25.9.2015 supplementing Regulation (EU) No 609/2013 of the EP and Council as regards infant formula, follow-on formula, c(2015) 6478, food for special medical…
Nestle launches new hypoallergenic formula promotion campaign as BMJ finally retracts fraudulent research that built the market
Baby Milk Action press release 29 October 2015 Media coverage: Huffington Post 5 November The British Medical Journal (BMJ) announced yesterday that it has finally retracted a fraudulent study used by Nestlé, Mead Johnson and other formula companies to weaken laws…
The Commission’s weak proposals on baby food and formula acts are out
The EU Commission’s proposals for new legislation covering the composition and marketing of baby foods and formulas have been sent to the European Parliament’s Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee (ENVI) I will post comments and a guide very soon…
New Guidelines on Infant feeding and the European refugee crisis
A new reply has been posted to Infant feeding and the European refugee crisis in the Infant and young child feeding interventions area. From Marie McGrath on Thursday 1 October at 3:25 PM Dear en-net I am happy to share Interim Operational Considerations for the…
German TV investigates Nestle
We are looking forward to English translations of two programmes broadcast in Germany this month by ARD, the world’s largest public broadcaster. Links to the German programmes are given below. Sign up for alerts and we will let you know…
India government sues Nestle for $100m over Maggi noodles
12th August Indian government sues Nestle for $100m over Maggi noodles CLICK HERE for BBC report CLICK Here or HERE or HERE The Indian Government announced today that it is suing Nestle for $100m (£64m) over “unfair trade practices.” following on from its…
European Parliamentarians oppose bogus baby food health claim
DHA briefing for MEPs DHA V13 European Parliamentarians oppose bogus baby food health claim 16 March, 2011 – 15:33 — Patti European Parliamentarians oppose bogus health claim 16th March – Brussels Members of the European Parliament have moved to block a…