UK government authority calls for follow-up formula ad ban and generic labelling
Press release
14th February 2025
Baby Milk Action/ IBFAN UK warmly welcomes the long-awaited report from the UK Government’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on the infant and follow-on formula market, an investigation prompted by the unjustifiable price hikes of 17-31% in the last two years.
The CMA package of proposals, also welcomed by the Baby Feeding Law Group, First Steps Nutrition Trust and UNICEF, recommends generic packaging of formula in health care systems, a ban on follow-up formula advertising (a safeguard that Baby Milk Action has campaigned for for decades), pre-authorisation of products, better enforcement of legislation and enhanced information for families on the nutritional equivalence of all infant formulas. . The aim is that parents make better informed decisions and not be lured by misleading claims to pay inflated prices for products – products that may contain ingredients that have not been independently proven to be safe.
The proposal to ban Follow-on Formula advertising for babies 6-12 months is especially welcome and important. Follow-up formulas were deliberately invented by the baby food industry to get round the marketing restrictions of the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes, the first global consumer protection tool, adopted in 1981 by the World Health Assembly, the world’s highest health policy setting body. This Code, partially in law in 144 countries, and has saved millions of children’s lives and safeguarded the optimal health of millions more.
Companies keep expanding the commercial formula range, targeting children with these ultra-processed products that contain artificial, industrially modified, hydrolysed ingredients that fuel the obesity epidemic and add to the environmental burden. The CMA highlights how many are cross promoted with infant formula for newborn babies. Countless WHA Resolutions have called for their promotion to be prohibited to protect all children, however they are fed.(1)
Idealisation of Optional ingredients
The CMA report also stresses that UK (and EU) legislation requires that all infant formulas be nutritionally similar and calls for this critically important fact to be highlighted in retail outlets.(2) As manufacturers’ attempt to differentiate their products and build consumer trust in the brand, they make unsubstantiated claims that their ‘optional ingredients‘ have additional nutritional benefits. The CMA recognises that this has had “a disproportionate influence on consumer choice”
Patti Rundall, member of IBFAN’s Global Council: “These are important and proposals that could make a welcome difference to infant feeding in the UK. While the CMA’s purpose is specific, thankfully the proposals all support the current UK Government view that breastfeeding should be protected and not undermined by misleading marketing. Our submission to the CMA highlighted the idealising claims and names used to promote optional ingredients with claims such as ‘human milk oligosaccharides (HMO) that falsely imply similarity with breastmilk. The fact is, if an ingredient is proven to be safe and necessary for child health, through rigorous independent and credible science, it should be mandatory in all formulas and added to the essential ingredient list. The supermarket shelf is not the place to make difficult decisions that could fundamentally affect children’s health and development.”(3)
Digital Marketing
The CMA’s proposals apply to online retail sales. Most of the problematic marketing that misleads parents and undermines breastfeeding and sound infant and young child health, now exists in the digital space and manufacturers and distributors are not the only ‘actors.’ When the UK law is updated, specific legal duties will need to be allocated to social media platforms and service providers who control their content. Earlier this week the WHO Executive Board, decided to send a draft Resolution Regulating the digital marketing of breast-milk substitutes to the World Health Assembly. A decision on its adoption is expected in May. (4)
Future steps
The CMA concludes its report by strongly encouraging “governments to act on our recommendations, vigorously and in full. We note however that these options are aimed at shifting widespread and deep-seated patterns of consumer behaviour. While we believe that this package has a strong chance of achieving this, the extent to which it will do so is inherently uncertain. ……If, having implemented our recommendations, governments consider that the impact on consumer outcomes is insufficient, it remains open to governments to consider the backstop option of introducing price controls. (5)
For more, contact: Patti Rundall prundall@babymilkaction.org
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Notes:
8.184 We consider that implementing this package of measures is essential to drive improved outcomes for parents. We therefore strongly encourage governments to act on our recommendations, vigorously and in full. We note however that these options are aimed at shifting widespread and deep-seated patterns of consumer behaviour. While we believe that this package has a strong chance of achieving this, the extent to which it will do so is inherently uncertain. It remains open to governments to consider, additionally, removing some regulatory restrictions including on price promotions should they wish to revisit the public policy position in terms of any impact on breastfeeding. We note in this regard that we have not seen any evidence that infant formula prices influence the decision of whether or not to breastfeed.
8.185 If, having implemented our recommendations, governments consider that the impact on consumer outcomes is insufficient, it remains open to governments to consider the backstop option of introducing price controls.