Anusha
Bradley, Investigative Reporter
10 April
2025
Baby formula companies tried to convince the
government to resist an expanded global ban on internet
marketing of infant milk, despite evidence that online
advertising was discouraging mums from
breastfeeding.
The former chief executive of the local
formula industry body even met with diplomats based at the
World Trade Organisation in Geneva to raise its concerns,
documents obtained by RNZ under the Official Information Act
show.
Meanwhile, French multinational Danone, whose
Karicare and Aptamil brands dominate the market in New
Zealand, separately told senior ministers that new World
Health Organisation (WHO) digital marketing guidelines were
“misguided” and urged officials not to enshrine them into
law.
“A communication blackout will deny New Zealand
parents and carers the information to make informed choices
on the best nutritional options for their infants,” Danone
wrote.
WHO issued the new guidelines last year,
recommending a ban on “digital” advertising of all formula –
and baby food – for children under three years old, after a
review found social media was now the main way parents were
exposed to formula marketing.
It said “exploitative”
and “insidious” marketing practices online had led to
increasing sales of formula, while dissuading mothers from
breastfeeding.
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“Through tools like apps, virtual
support groups or ‘baby-clubs’, paid social media
influencers, promotions and competitions and advice forums
or services, formula milk companies can buy or collect
personal information and send personalized promotions to new
pregnant women and mothers,” the
WHO report said.
The World Health Assembly is
expected to formally adopt the guidelines into its
International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes in
May.
The New Zealand government’s 2023 submission to
the draft guidelines – made in consultation with formula
companies – did not support the full scope of the proposed
rules banning digital marketing of foods for infants and
young children, or the expanded definition of breastmilk
substitutes covering infants up to three years of
age.
New Zealand has been a signatory to the Code
since 1983, but only partially complies with it because
compliance is based on a voluntary, industry-run code of
practice, rather than regulations enshrined in
law.
The Code, which is run by industry body the
Infant Nutrition Council (INC) and overseen by the Ministry
of Health, currently prohibits members from marketing
products for infants up to 12 months of age, including
digital marketing.
Rules ‘misguided’
Documents
released to RNZ show that Danone urged senior ministers
against adopting the new guidelines into law, despite the
company’s own ‘advocacy policy’ stating it supports national
legislation that supports the WHO International Code of
Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes.
“The guidance is
misguided and will have profound consequences for the infant
formula industry and consumers,” Danone New Zealand
operations manager Steve Donnelly wrote in a December 2023
letter to Food Safety Minister Andrew Hoggard and Trade and
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay.
He urged ministers
to apply a “national interest test” to the WHO guidance,
referring to the National-New Zealand First coalition
agreement requiring the government to apply such a test
before it accepted any United Nations agreements.
“Our
view is that the consequences of the WHO guidelines for
breast milk substitute digital marketing are of the national
interest and should not be adopted,” wrote
Donnelly.
The guidelines would lead to a “total ban”
of all digital communications about its products for
newborns up to 36-months old, he said.
Even though
potential ratification by New Zealand was “likely years
away” and led by the health ministry he urged the ministers
and MPI to “take an active interest in these
developments.”
Danone had also raised its concerns to
the Ministry for Primary Industries’ Dairy Product Safety
Advisory Council (DPSAC) in November 2023, questioning what
action the government was taking over the issue.
DPSAC
was set up in 1999 to “promote communication between MPI and
industry and assist in developing standards and policies.”
Danone has been a member since 2020.
At the time, MPI
told Danone the final guidelines had already been issued and
there was nothing it could do, documents show.
Danone
raised concerns again in April 2024 with Foreign Affairs
Minister Winston Peters.
“Our primary concern is that
babies and parents do not become the poor relation of
regulation,” wrote Donnelly.
The letter was forwarded
to Associate Health Minister Casey Costello, who oversees
maternal health, to respond to.
Her officials noted
the guidance issued by WHO was not legally binding, and
health, MPI, MFAT and Health NZ would work together to
determine “whether any actions from the guidance will be
implemented.”
Costello told Donnelly the government
had no plans to change the voluntary INC code of practice
currently in place.
“If evidence emerged that
suggested New Zealand’s current approach does not adequately
cover digital marketing practices, then New Zealand may
consider measures covered in the guidance,” she wrote in a
June letter.
She would expect the industry to be
consulted if changes were proposed, she said.
‘A bit
of a shocker’
RNZ asked Danone why it was against the
new guidance when the current INC code already banned the
use of digital marketing.
The company declined to be
interviewed, but in a statement said it wrote to senior
ministers over the “concerning language used in the digital
marketing guidance which suggested it was mandatory and
superseded national laws”.
When asked why it opposed
national laws when it was its own policy to support national
legislation supporting the WHO code, it responded that it
supported the code but the digital marketing guidelines were
not yet officially part of it.
“We believe it must be
made clear to policymakers that preventing infant formula
manufacturers from providing factual information about their
products via digital channels may exacerbate existing issues
faced by parents and carers, such as the rise of
misinformation and unreliable content online,” it
said.
Danone’s own 2023 global
advocacy policy stated the company would support the WHO
code.
“As a first step we will support the adoption,
implementation and, critically, enforcement of national
legislation to meet the needs of each market.”
It also
stated it is “committed to lobbying only in support of
measures to improve health and nutrition, consistent with
the public interest and nutrition”.
Danone was not the
only organisation opposed to the WHO guidance.
INC,
which runs the voluntary code of practice for marketing
formula in New Zealand, told MPI the guidelines were “a bit
of a shocker”.
“We think it should not proceed,” INC
policy analyst Carole Inskter told MPI officials in
September 2023.
That same month, then-INC chief
executive Jan Carey flew to Geneva and met with Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and Trade officials based at New Zealand’s
permanent mission to the World Trade Organisation over the
issue.
“From industry’s point of view, digital
marketing is already covered under the WHO Code including in
New Zealand’s response which is the INC Code of Practice for
the Marketing of Infant Formula in New Zealand,” she
wrote.
The College of Midwives said it would like to
see the WHO code enshrined in New Zealand law “to protect
breastfeeding.”
In a 2023 submission to the Commerce
Commission about the INC code it raised concerns about New
Zealand not fulfilling its obligations under the WHO
code.
Legislation would “support unbiased information
about the safe and appropriate use of commercial milk
formula for parents and carers,” it said.
“The
marketing of commercial milk formula directly undermines
breastfeeding protection.”
The INC Code requires
Commerce Commission approval because it brings companies
together in a way that could be perceived as
collusion.
In February, Australia’s competition
regulator denied extending the INC’s code on that side of
the Tasman for another five years over concerns about its
voluntary nature, limited scope and ability to restrict
digital marketing methods.
Australia’s health
department has recommended replacing it with a mandatory
code, which is expected to take two years to
implement.
The health ministry told RNZ there was no
timeline for implementing the new WHO digital marketing code
in New Zealand.
The pushback against the WHO
guidelines was revealed amid
a recent RNZ investigation into a government backdown
over trans-Tasman formula guidelines.
That
investigation found a handful of formula companies, led by
Danone and The A2 Milk Company, successfully lobbied against
the government adopting tougher trans-Tasman food standards
for baby formula.
The companies opposed two labelling
rules they claimed would have affected sales and exports to
China.
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