Abstract

PIP: A consortium of 27 religious and health organizations has released a report entitled "Cracking the Code," which criticizes the bottle-feeding marketing techniques used by Nestle, Gerber, Mead Johnson, Wyeth, and Nutricia. Research for the report was carried out in Thailand, Bangladesh, South Africa, and Poland using a random sample of 800 mothers and 120 health workers in each country. In all 4 sites, women had received information that violated the World Health Organization's 1981 international code of marketing breast milk substitutes. Violations included promoting artificial feeding without recognizing breast feeding as the best source of infant nutrition. The investigation also found that women and health workers in all 4 sites received free samples of artificial milk. The report includes detailed examples of manufacturer representatives making unrequested visits to give product information to mothers, providing incentives to health workers to promote products, and promoting products outside of health care facilities. While the International Association of Infant Food Manufacturers condemned the study as biased, the Nestle company promised to review the allegations contained in the report and to deal with any breaches in the code. The Interagency Group on Breastfeeding Monitoring, which prepared the report, was created in 1994 to provide data to groups supporting a boycott of Nestle for code violations.