Baby Milk Action - CEM February 2008

Support the call for the UK Government's weak formula regulations to be reviewed and strengthened

Please send a message to the UK Government. Click here to go direct to our suggested message.

Background:

Last year the UK Government consulted on revising the Infant Formula and Follow-on Formula Regulations. The new Regulations leave in place many of the loopholes of the old ones. However, the Government has given a commitment to keep the Regulations under review for a year and strengthen them if they do not work to stop aggressive marketing by the baby food companies.

In an attempt to help companies and the enforcement authorities interprete the Regulations correctly, the Government has produced Guidance Notes, which are currently out for consultation. You can find full details of the consultation at:
http://www.food.gov.uk/consultations/consulteng/
2007/infformnewguide07eng

There is little scope for calling for the Guidance Notes to be improved because they are constrained by the Regulations. However, you can encourage the Government to keep its promise regarding the review.

Baby Milk Action prepared the report Protecting breastfeeding - Protecting babies fed on formula on behalf of the Baby Feeding Law Group for the Government's consultation on the regulations.

This is also endorsed by the Breastfeeding Manifesto Coalition.

It shows some of the practices that undermine breastfeeding and mislead those parents and carers who do use formula.

We will be watching closely to see if these types of practices are stopped. You can report any examples you see to the Baby Feeding Law Group monitoring project.

Note: The baby food industry is attempting to delay this process of review and strengthening of the regulations through legal action at the High Court. If you wish, you can help the Baby Feeding Law Group oppose the delay by making a donation after sending your message to the FSA.

The consultation beng run by the Food Standards Agency has now ended. Many thanks to everyone who sent messages.

During 2008 if you are in the UK you can ask your Member of Parliament to sign Early Day Motion 608.

Take a deep breath because these have to be one sentence long.

That this House notes the Government's responsibility to implement the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and subsequent relevant Resolutions of the World Health Assembly (WHA) through national measures to protect breastfeeding and to ensure the safe use of breastmilk substitutes if these are necessary; regrets its failure to act on the advice of its own Scientific Committee on Nutrition, LACORS, the health professional bodies, and health advocates making up the Baby Feeding Law Group, through the proposed Infant Formula and Follow-on Formula Regulations, by failing to prohibit promotion of follow-on formula, health and nutrition claims and companies targeting parents or to require improved warnings and instructions to reduce risk of formula use; and urges the Government to bring the regulations into line with the International Code and WHA resolutions which call for such prohibition.

You can check if your MP has already signed at: http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?
EDMID=34759&SESSION=891

If not, please ask him or her to do so. If so, why not say thanks?

A quick and easy way to contact your MP is through the website: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/

You can be a Code Monitor.