Student Articles

Henry Nestle wanted to start his own line of milk-based baby formula for babies who were unable to receive breast milk due to a variety of factors. This was a vital and lifesaving invention, and he was the first to be able to mass produce this. To this day, formula is the company’s biggest money makersandtheformula’sindustry'smarket value is projected to reach 119 billion dollars by 2025. The 1970s saw nestle expanding its formula empire globally but their competition was severely undercutting their potential. This was breast milk as while some babies for whatever reason couldn’t breastfeed, the majority could, and it was convenient for others and the best option for new-borns so demand simply wasn’t large enough. As most companies would do, nestle increased their advertising to undermine natural breastmilk and persuade consumers to opt for formula.

Since the free samples ended when mothers stopped lactating, these mothers took to diluting the formula with more water than needed to keep their supply for as long as possible to save money but were unknowingly starving the children. Since nestle targeted underdeveloped countries, a lot of them did not have access to clean water so a lot of babiessuffered from many diseases and died. In 1981, the WHO adopted a strict code of advertising banning the promotion of baby milk products as being in any way comparable to breastmilk.

Breastmilk vs formula

This is not something unheard of yet what was seen as morally dubious was that there was an attempt to manipulate customers by spreading the narrative that their formula is beneficialforinfantsandprovidesallofthe necessary nutrients that breast milk cannot. It went as far as Nestlé hiring saleswomen dressed as nurses in developing regions of Asia and Africa to send them to give medical advice to mothers and hand them free samples of the baby formula. Undereducated mothers of underdeveloped countries believed the women and the free samples were weighed and packaged strategically to last just up to the day when the mothers get fully dependent on the formula and stop lactating themselves.

Unfortunately, this led to thousands of infantdeathsasthemotherswereswapping Nestlé's baby formula for breast milk. This left the children deficient in the necessary nutrients that breast milk provides as breastmilk contains special bacteria which helps prevent pneumonia and malnutrition.

Even though the company is trying theirbesttokeeptheirbabyformula’s image squeaky clean after the big "Baby Killer" blunder, by promoting ads encouraging mothers and talking about the benefits of natural milk. They are still pushing the baby formulaandbribinghealthworkersin countries with lenient laws and still getting away with it. Nestle insists that it follows the code “as implemented by national governments”.