Monday, June 22, 2009

Fundraising to hold UK formula companies to account

We are waiting for the UK government's review panel to give its recommendations on what to do in response to continued aggressive marketing of formula following the introduction of the new Infant Formula and Follow-on Formula Regulations 2007 and the associated guidance notes.

As the monitoring reports we produce for the Baby Feeding Law Group (BFLG) show, violations remain 'commonplace' - to use the word of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in its assessment of the government's performance in protecting child rights. The Committee, like all health worker bodies, mother support groups and the government's own Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition have called for stronger regulations.

We continue to monitor the companies and will be producing a further report in the coming months. The next report will respond to the action - or lack of it - taken by the review panel. It will also go to the home authorities responsible for enforcing the regulations, to the Advertising Standards Authority and the Food Standards Agency. As the latest report shows, this has stopped some questionable marketing practices, but has mainly demonstrated the failings of the current regulatory and enforcement system.

To do this work, we rely on the support of volunteer monitors (some of whom we have trained), donations and sales of reports.

We are grateful to LatchOn.org for listing our project on its site at:

You can make a donation via that site or the BFLG site:

You can download the latest report and purchase a printed copy at:

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