By Moses Kinyanjui For Citizen Digital
Dr Francesco Branca, director of the WHO Nutrition and Food Safety Department, believes the promotion strategies should have been abandoned a long time ago because they are aggressive and end up talking mothers out of exclusive breastfeeding.
“The promotion of commercial milk formulas should have been terminated decades ago,” Dr.Branca said as quoted by Business Daily.
“The fact that formula milk companies are now employing even more powerful and insidious marketing techniques to drive up their sales is inexcusable and must be stopped.”
The marketing techniques have also been cited for sabotaging mother’s confidence in their ability to breastfeed successfully.
According to a WHO report, the cynical marketing tactics used to promote milk formula encourage overconsumption, discourage breastfeeding, undermine mothers' confidence, and take advantage of parents' instinct to do what is best for their children.
The formula milk industry buys or collects personal information from pregnant women and new mothers using mobile applications, virtual support clubs, paid social media influencers, advice forums, and promotions.
Out of four million social media posts about infant feeding published between January and June 2021, over two billion people were reached and over 12 million likes, shares, or comments were generated.
According to the WHO, this is a violation of the International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes, which is intended to protect the general public and mothers from aggressive marketing practices.
According to the WHO, increasing breastfeeding could save an estimated 800,000 children under the age of five and 20,000 mothers from breast cancer each year.
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