Bringing Up Baby

Is ethical catering for babies child's play? Marie Payne and Jane Lawson investigate.

Whether it is wet, dry, frozen, precooked, pureed, pouched, potted, canned or the traditional jarred, the baby food market is booming, worth an estimated £315 million annually.

(1) Today's junior can select from a smorgasbord of foods organised into three main categories: milk, meals, and finger food such as rusks and biscuits. But none of these are as nutritious as good old-fashioned breastmilk.

Baby Milk Marketing
Most people are familiar with the leading contenders in the formula/baby food market, despite tight marketing regulations governing the promotion of baby milk and food.

The WHO/UNICEF International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes, adopted by a Resolution of the World Health Assembly in 1981, was drawn up in response to concerns over 'bottle baby disease', the deadly combination of diarrhoea, dehydration and malnutrition which can be the result of unsafe bottle feeding.

The code applies to all products marketed as a partial or total replacement for breastmilk, such as infant formula, follow-on milk, baby foods, teas and juices, and bans the promotion of any of these products for use before the age of 6 months.

Baby Milk Action (BMAC) is calling for UK law, which currently allows breastmilk substitutes to be promoted for use before 6 months of age, to be brought into line with WHA requirements.(2) It has launched a campaign urging people to write to the Food Standards Agency in support of this.

Not best for baby
According to BMAC, all the profiled companies have violated the WHA international code and have been reported to Trading Standards, Ofcom or the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for aggressive promotion.(3) Baby Organix and Truuuly Scrumptious have violated the Code only in labelling their foods as suitable for use from the age of four months rather than six and so receive a smaller table mark than the other more serious offenders.

BMAC names Nestlé, Royal Numico (producers of Cow & Gate and Milupa) and Wyeth/SMA as the top three offenders.(4) Nestlé is notorious for using aggressive marketing tactics in poorer countries, for example giving away free samples in hospitals.

(5) Nestlé also claimed, in Southern Africa, that the high acidity of its infant formula Pelargon would kill germs and that this made it safe to use with infected water, and apparently played up the risk of HIV infection from breastfeeding.(5) Royal Numico came under fire in 2004 for promoting its 'Kissing My Baby' milk in China with free CDs.(6)

And in July 2003 Wyeth's SMA Nutrition was fined £26,000 and ordered to pay nearly £35,000 costs after it was found guilty of illegal advertising in parenting magazines in the UK.(7)

BMAC also labelled HiPP "one of the worst companies in the European Union" for code violations, for marketing its infant teas as being suitable for babies from one week old.(8)

Nestlé
Although it is the world leader in the baby milk market, Nestlé currently has a limited UK presence with NAN HA,(9) a formula which was previously marketed in the United States as hypo-allergenic: "People are up in arms about that. It gives the impression you can use it for allergenic infants. You can't.

Some infants [in the US] have died of anaphylactic shock and it is now banned in the US. Despite this they have used this brand name in this country. It is our concern that infants could die in this country and in particular how it's being marketed to health professionals."(10) Nestlé is of course the target of a boycott call by BMA to stop its irresponsible marketing of breastmilk substitutes around the world.

Organic options
After starting out as a "niche" market in the 1990s the organic baby food industry is now mainstream, worth more than £150 million, as more parents say no to pesticides. The presence of pesticide residues is of particular concern in babyfoods as infants have a much larger food intake per unit of body weight than adults, which means they potentially absorb more toxins.(11)

Currently HiPP and Cow & Gate are the only companies who offer organic formula in the UK, however most of the companies featured produce some organic babyfood products (see table for details).

The animal-free baby
According to the Vegan Society,(12) Farley's Soya Formula is the only baby formula available in the UK that is suitable for vegans, as other soya formulas available contain vitamin D3, which is derived from sheep's wool. The Vegan Society provides a useful booklet for parents wanting to give their baby a vegan diet - see Links section for contact details.

The GM-free baby
Of the companies we contacted, Royal Numico and Wyeth sent no information regarding their policy on the use of GM ingredients.

Heinz sent its Genetically Modified Ingredients Statement 2003, which stated the company was "committed to taking every possible step to ensure that Heinz varieties remain free from ingredients derived from genetically modified crops."

However, some Heinz brands in the USA, such as Rosetto Pasta and Ore-Ida Frozen Potatoes, are still listed on www.truefoodnow.org as containing genetically engineered ingredients. Soil Association-certified organic baby foods, such as HiPP, Baby Organix and Truuuly Scrumptious are free from GMOs.

Alternatives
We recommend breastfeeding over baby milk where possible. Once baby starts on solids, parents can make their own baby foods.

Two of the many baby food recipe books available are The Organic Baby & Toddler Cookbook (Daphne Lambert & Tanyia Maxted-Frost, Green Books) and Baby & Child Vegetarian Recipes (Carol Timperley, Ebury Press). Lizzie Vann, one of the founders of Organix Brand Ltd, has also written an Organic Baby and Toddler Cookbook (Dorling Kindersley).

References
1 Mintel Baby Milk and Foods Report September 2004
2 Phone interview with Mike Brady from BMAC 12/01/05
3 Email from BMAC 12/01/05
4 Baby Milk Action/IBFAN State of the Code by Company Document 5
Nice Design - shame about the text, BMAC/IBFAN 2002
6 www.babymilkaction.org
7 www.guardian.co.uk
8 Phone interview with Mike Brady from BMAC 12/01/05 + www.ibfan.org/hipp
9 telephone interview 12/1/05
10 Phone interview with Mike Brady from BMAC 12/01/05
11 Ethical Consumer 63, ECRA Publishing February 2000
12 www.vegansociety.com 17/1/05
13 The Guardian, 1/08/03
14 Corpwatch 22/7/02
15 Royal Numico N.V. Remuneration Policy and 2003 Report
16 Royal Numico N.V. 2003 Annual Report
17 www.peta.org 4/11/02
18 www.boycottbush.net 29/05/02