Nestle accused of risking baby heath in Africa, Asia and Latin America

NGO says Swiss nutrient elephantine is ‘putting the wellness of babies astatine hazard for profit’ by adding sweetener to babyfood.

Swiss nutrient elephantine Nestle has been adding sweetener to babyfood to assistance it stoke income successful Africa, Asia and Latin America – aft cutting it from products sold successful European markets, according to a study from an NGO.

Released connected Tuesday by Swiss-based “global justness organisation” Public Eye, the report, entitled How Nestle gets children hooked connected sweetener successful lower-income countries, accuses the institution of “putting the wellness of babies astatine hazard for profit”.

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Discussing the results of an probe carried retired by Public Eye and the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN), the study says that added sweetener was recovered successful 93 percent of Nestle babyfood products sold successful African, Asian and Latin American countries.

The magnitude of sweetener added varied crossed markets, the survey found.

Baby cereal sold nether the Cerelac marque successful Thailand contained six grams of sweetener – oregon astir 1.5 sweetener cubes – per serving.

In Ethiopia, it had 5.2 grams added, portion babies successful Pakistan devour Cerelac with 2.7 grams of added sugar.

In Switzerland and different main European markets specified arsenic Germany and the United Kingdom, Cerelac is sold without immoderate added sugar.

The World Health Organization advises that foods for children nether 3 should incorporate “no added sugars oregon sweetening agents,” informing that vulnerability to sweetener aboriginal successful beingness tin make a lifelong penchant for sugary products that increases the hazard of processing obesity and different chronic illnesses.

Nestle controls 20 percent of the planetary babyfood market, which has yearly income of astir $70bn, and advertises “aggressively” successful Africa, Asia and Latin America that its products are indispensable to children’s steadfast development, according to Public Eye.

However, it warns, the probe “tells a antithetic story”.

Public Eye and IBFAN “demands that Nestlé enactment an extremity to this unjustifiable and harmful treble standard, which contributes to the explosive emergence of obesity and leads children to make a life-long penchant for sugary products,” the study reads.

A spokesperson for Nestle, which has rejected erstwhile accusations of “double standards” regarding the nutrition of its babyfood products successful antithetic regions of the globe, branded the probe “misleading,” according to The Guardian newspaper.

Having cereals saccharine capable to beryllium palatable to infants is captious successful combatting malnutrition, the spokesperson continued, adding that Nestle recipes are good wrong limits acceptable by nationalist regulations successful the countries concerned.