A Corporate Scandal and Baby Formula

By A.S Thiollier

Let's face it: everyone lies once in a while. It happens.  Lies can be harmless – “I love that sweater!”, “the dog ate it!”, or “chego em 5 min” – but, occasionally, they can be quite harmful. Of course, when we lie, we do so on a relatively small scale, and the impacts that result from them, while certainly hurtful, are small as well. However, much like us, companies have the potential to lie, and when they do so, it can be very problematic. Another thing about lies is that they tend to come out eventually, and for companies, this might mean consequences a bit bigger than being grounded... 


Nestlé is, at the moment, the largest food and beverage company in the world. The Swiss company produces Nescafé coffee, KitKat chocolates, Perrier sparkling water, nutritional supplements, and, most importantly for this article, infant formula. In the 1970s, Nestlé advertised their formula in developing countries as an alternative to breastfeeding, with the objective of leading mothers to believe the formula was more modern and superior than breast feeding. To do this, they implemented methods such as distributing free samples at hospitals and having sales representatives dress like nurses to get mothers to believe them. Once the campaign was over, mothers had stopped producing their own milk, and had to buy the expensive, and in some cases, unaffordable, formula. In regions of poor sanitation, the water mixed in with the formula was unclean, leading to many newborns becoming sick. Additionally, in the numerous cases of low-income mothers, the inability to purchase enough formula caused malnutrition, increasing the infant mortality rate.


Safe to say, this caused an uprising. Activists, such as the Infant Formula Action Coalition (INFACT), called for a global boycott of Nestlé’s products, that started in 1977 in Minneapolis in the USA, and soon spread to many other countries. In 1981, the World Health Organisation created the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes to prevent misleading campaigns like this one from occurring again. Despite this, speculation that Nestle is breaching this act has continued up to this year, with the revelation that their baby food in low- and middle-income countries has higher sugar content than in other parts of the world. In Senegal and South Africa, a specific baby cereal has 6 grams of sugar per serving, whilst in Switzerland, the very same product had none. Excess sugar at early ages can cause long-term health problems in children, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, learning, memory, and risk of cognitive impairment. The list goes on.


This ethical nightmare cannot go unpunished. And it is not a unique occurrence. All over the world and all throughout history, companies use lies, deceit, and manipulation for personal gain. However, once again, the truth has come out, and NGOs, activists, and news outlets are around to keep us aware, so we can decide what to do about it. And it certainly won't be taking Nestlé’s phone away for a month.