Swiss food firm’s infant formula and cereal sold in global south ignore WHO anti-obesity guidelines for Europe, says Public Eye

Nestlé, the world’s largest consumer goods company, adds sugar and honey to infant milk and cereal products sold in many poorer countries, contrary to international guidelines aimed at preventing obesity and chronic diseases, a report has found.

Campaigners from Public Eye, a Swiss investigative organisation, sent samples of the Swiss multinational’s baby-food products sold in Asia, Africa and Latin America to a Belgian laboratory for testing.

The results, and examination of product packaging, revealed added sugar in the form of sucrose or honey in samples of Nido, a follow-up milk formula brand intended for use for infants aged one and above, and Cerelac, a cereal aimed at children aged between six months and two years.

In Nestlé’s main European markets, including the UK, there is no added sugar in formulas for young children. While some cereals aimed at older toddlers contain added sugar, there is none in products targeted at babies between six months and one year.

  • Buffalox@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    220
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    8 months ago

    Nestle is a notorious scumbag company, personally I have avoided anything Nestle all my life, since when I grew up, there were already news about illegally bad quality/harmful formula food. I have NEVER heard a good thing about that company.

        • Dohnuthut@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          23
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          8 months ago

          As of now, the only product I have to buy to support this atrocious company is Fancy Feast because it’s the only food my picky senior cat will eat.

          • jpeps@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            7
            ·
            8 months ago

            Ugh their firm grip on the pet food market endlessly pisses me off. I paid for a fancy B Corp certified cat food brand for years before realising it had been bought out by Nestlé

          • Jessica@discuss.tchncs.de
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            6
            ·
            edit-2
            8 months ago

            You’re feeding your cat the equivalent of potato chips. No shit it’s all they want to eat lol

            Edit: I can’t read. See below

            • Soggy@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              8 months ago

              At least they’re hydrating potato chips. Kidney failure is a big problem for cats, sticking to an all-wet diet is already better than average.

              • Jessica@discuss.tchncs.de
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                edit-2
                8 months ago

                Oh. I genuinely misread OP’s post as Friskies, not Fancy Feast. I agree any wet food is miles better than dry food. Apologies @Dohnuthut@lemmy.world

                I will take this opportunity to plug https://catfooddb.com to find quality wet foods because not all are created equally. Many have more fat than protein, which is not normal in the diet of a cat in the wild.

                My personal recommendation is Tiki Cat

        • kautau@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          17
          ·
          8 months ago

          And Perrier, because why have one competing brand when you could have all of them

          • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            9
            ·
            8 months ago

            Perrier bought San Pelegrino, then Nestle bought Perrier. Perrier Group of America owned several water brands in the ‘90s and early ‘00s.

      • 👍Maximum Derek👍@discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        36
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        It looks hard, in practice it is not. I haven’t knowingly purchased a Nestle product in over decade. Mistakes happen now and again, but when they do I add that brand to my mental list and move on.

        Where it gets confusing is international brand ownership differences. For example, Cheerios is still made and distributed by General Mills in North America, but by Nestle in most of the rest of the world.

      • Buffalox@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        8 months ago

        Yes I’m 61, and that’s what I remember. But what’s worse is that they continue to do it, so there are regular scandals about it. That’s why I’ve never forgiven the company, because when it could have been time, there’s a new scandal.

  • nutsack@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    193
    arrow-down
    7
    ·
    edit-2
    8 months ago

    they also tell doctors in these poor countries to give the stupid products to new mothers with perfectly normal milk production. they tell them it’s better than natural milk. It’s an American product, and they buy into it because they want their kid to be smart like an American. Nestle is an awful company.

    • affiliate@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      70
      ·
      8 months ago

      it’s worth mentioning that very rarely is baby formula better than breast milk. the contents of breast milk change depending on the what the child needs at the moment. it’s really sick that some companies market it as a better option than breast milk

      source

      • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        42
        ·
        8 months ago

        whats really sick is the fact that nestle gave free formula to women in poor companies, telling them that it was better, just long enough for their breast milk to dry up, before starting to charge them insane prices for it.

      • TheFriar@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        Well, capitalism sees a vacuum where there’s no need and artificially creates need.

        Of course there are a percentage of women who can’t breastfeed or babies who won’t, but as you said, they wedged the shitheel of companies into a space with limited need and lied to people, making babies less healthy and less developed. For money.

        But it’s the best system there is, right? “Effective” and “best” don’t mean the same thing. But here we are. Led by greedy fuckers, tricking idiots, buying people up the information chain, to fool literally everyone.

        Dog food is another great example. Did you know that iams/purina/science diet fund a ton of veterinary schools? They basically own the schools and inject their own “lessons” into the nutrition curriculum. Not to mention they turn vets into even higher priced retail food sales by calling it “prescription” food. That food is dog shit. Not dog food. But hey, capitalism “innovated” this type of shit into existence. And, this is just my opinion, but the fact that the food is so shitty I think might be calculated too. Get the dogs to have worse health, bring them back to the vet, more opportunities to sell a super cheaply made food at incredibly inflated prices.

        Fuck capitalism. That’s all I have to say. Fuck it straight to hell.

    • T156@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      29
      ·
      8 months ago

      The babies going on formula means that the mother’s milk supply dries up when the baby isn’t having any, and that they’re then dependent on it, since it is quite difficult to start producing milk again after.

    • QualifiedKitten@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      33
      ·
      8 months ago

      added sugar in the form of sucrose or honey in samples of Nido, a follow-up milk formula brand intended for use for infants aged one and above,

      I hate that it sounds as if I’m defending them, but the only specific mention of honey does say it was in a product targeted at children over 1 year old. I believe the recommendation I’ve heard is that honey is dangerous for children under 1 year old. But fuck, if unsweetened products are good enough for infants in wealthy countries, WTF are they doing adding it to products aimed at infants in poorer countries??

      • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        41
        ·
        8 months ago

        if unsweetened products are good enough for infants in wealthy countries, WTF are they doing adding it to products aimed at infants in poorer countries??

        Getting their customers addicted early.

    • FiveMacs@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      33
      ·
      8 months ago

      They don’t care, it’s about forming that early addiction to sugar. Thats all they want. More sugar consumption and addiction.

      • sik0fewl@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        27
        ·
        8 months ago

        It’s not the immune system, but rather their stomachs are not acidic enough to neutralize the bacteria.

        They could still heat the honey enough in an industrial setting (beyond just pasteurization) to kill the bacteria as well, so I doubt that’s a real concern.

    • Toes♀@ani.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      13
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      8 months ago

      You aren’t because it can contain harmful stuff but I suspect it’s so ultra processed by this stage it won’t matter.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    32
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    8 months ago

    Maybe I missed it in the article, but isn’t it more expensive for Nestlé to add the sugar than to not use it? I don’t understand their motivation here. I mean, I assume it’s evil considering what company this is, I just don’t understand it.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        arrow-down
        26
        ·
        8 months ago

        I agree, but kids will be addicted to sugar pretty quickly regardless. Maybe that’s the reason, but it seems like an awfully big expense when all they have to do is sell chocolate and the kids come running.

        • RBG@discuss.tchncs.de
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          48
          ·
          8 months ago

          Yeah, but this is milk. For small babies that don’t eat solid food. This is basically training them to crave sugar as early as possible.

        • cley_faye@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          23
          ·
          8 months ago

          Kids don’t get addicted to sugar much if there isn’t much sugar intake occasion. I’m sure they checked the market and found that they could sell more sugar-based product later with this initial push.

        • otp@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          8 months ago

          In poorer countries, they might not buy non-essentials like sweets and chocolate as much as in the West. This ensures the sugar addiction starts early!

        • glimse@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          15
          ·
          8 months ago

          Remind me how that guy/scene relates to coke? I haven’t seen that movie since it came out

          (Not arguing! I just need a refresher to get the reference)

          • Xhieron@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            10
            ·
            8 months ago

            He meets the kids and hands them each a Coke as a way of presenting himself as friendly and generous–and it looks like a marketing money shot; I wish I could find a gif of it. Those Cokes look like ambrosia from heaven.

            And then a few scenes later he’s putting out kids’ eyes to make them more effective beggars.

            • glimse@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              5
              ·
              8 months ago

              Aha! I remember now. I figured he was the kid-mutilator but completely forgot the Coke part.

              Thanks for the reminder!

    • jol@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      27
      ·
      8 months ago

      I’m pretty sure sugar is cheaper than the rest of the formula by weight. They are essencial ly cutting formula with a cheaper more readily available product.

    • Anamana@feddit.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      26
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      Their motivation might be to get the kids hooked on the stuff early on. Sugar works like a drug in some ways by releasing dopamine in the brain and if you train your brain early on it will affect it longterm. Plus it will influence their future taste preferences. Everything else, besides Nestle’s oversugared snacks will taste bland in comparison. Leading to kids crying at supermarket checkouts to get their favourite snacks :D

      • Pretzilla@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        8 months ago

        Some brain and a bunch of gut biome I suspect.

        Once the sugar eating biome get established they rule the roost.

        • Anamana@feddit.de
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          8 months ago

          Also social factors come to play, like influencing purchasing behavior, cooking, food at restaurants etc

    • Annoyed_🦀 @monyet.cc
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      Babies like sugary thing, adding it in formula make sure babies refuse healthier alternative other than product made by Nestle for at least 3 years.

    • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      8 months ago

      I assume they then dilute it back down so it’s the same calories per 100 ml. Sugar is cheap.

  • SomeGuy69@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    edit-2
    8 months ago

    As if we needed any more reasons to hate Nestlé. If they ever find a sugar that’s as addictive as heroin, they’d sell it to the world without telling anyone.

  • Nougat@fedia.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    8 months ago

    Nestlé, the world’s largest consumer goods company, adds sugar and honey to infant milk and cereal products sold in many poorer countries, …

    Isn’t honey verboten for infants because of the possibility of severe allergic reaction?