Marketing claims for infant formula should be banned, argue experts in the BMJ.
Robert J Boyle, a specialist in child allergy at Imperial College London, and his colleagues say current regulations do not effectively prevent potentially misleading claims that may carry health risks for a vulnerable population.
They write that infant formula is still associated with health risks for mother and infant compared with breastfeeding. Manufacturers try to limit these risks through changes to formula composition, which are often accompanied by health or nutrition claims that aid product differentiation or increase market value. Academics and regulators have raised concerns that these claims are often unfounded and may undermine efforts to support breastfeeding.
They propose that any changes to the composition of infant formula should require pre-market approval, and the bar for scientific substantiation needs to be significantly higher than that currently used by manufacturers to justify their claims.
And when a change in infant formula composition has been shown to have a beneficial health effect, that change should be added to the Codex international food standards so that all formula fed infants can benefit, they say.
Using the new ingredient as a health claim before assessment and inclusion in the mandatory Codex standards should be banned, they say, to “avoid misleading consumers and undermining breastfeeding.”
“Infants and their carers are not being adequately protected from adverse consequences of claims about infant formula,” they conclude."
“Global action is needed to break the current cycle of weak scientific evidence and unreliable claims and move to a new era where carers of infants are given accurate information about infant formula products in a manner that does not undermine breastfeeding.”
