Assessment of corporate compliance with guidance and regulations on labels of commercially produced complementary foods sold in Cambodia, Nepal, Senegal and Tanzania

Few studies have documented the marketing of commercial foods and beverages for infants and young children in West Java, Indonesia. To assess the prevalence of promotions at points‐of‐sale for commercially produced products commonly fed to young children in Bandung City, 43 small and large stores were visited in 2017. Promotions for breastmilk substitutes (BMS), commercially produced complementary foods (CPCF), and select types of commercial snack products were photographed and information recorded on promotion characteristics. There were 402 and 206 promotions observed with BMS and CPCF products, respectively. Sixteen promotions with BMS products for infants under 12 months were found in 42.9% of stores selling BMS, violating national regulations. Almost all BMS promotions (98.3%) included BMS products for ages 1 year and above (“growing‐up milks”). Of all BMS products available for sale, half of all infant/follow‐up formula and 77.2% of growing‐up milks were promoted. CPCF were found in 97.7% of stores, and 81.0% of these stores had promotions; 70.5% of all available CPCF products were promoted. Of the 2,451 promotions observed for commercial snack products, 17.3% used promotional techniques targeting young children or caregivers. Joint‐promotions were common, with BMS and CPCF marketed in combination with commercial snack products; 49.0% of BMS promotions were joint BMS‐snack promotions, and 80.0% or more of infant/follow‐up formula promotions included a commercial snack. Revising and enforcing infant food and beverage marketing regulations to ensure consistency with global standards are necessary to protect and promote optimal infant and young child feeding in Indonesia.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sweetened milks in particular were commonly used in joint- foods for children Smith et al, 2015;Sweet et al, 2016), and needs to be regulated.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Promotions of breastmilk substitutes, commercial complementary foods and commercial snack products commonly fed to young children are frequently found in points‐of‐sale in Bandung City, Indonesia

Hadihardjono

Green

Stormer

et al. 2019

“…Purposive sampling of large stores took place because it was expected that they would carry the majority of the IYCF products available for sale nationally based on research conducted by Sweet et al (2012) and were strategically selected based on Helen Keller International in-country staff knowledge that they potentially stocked the greatest variety of CPCF products. Additional detail on store and product sampling procedures can be found in Appendix 1 of Sweet et al 2016. In addition, a random sample of 20-50% of administrative units in each city was chosen for inclusion so that approximately 10 units were sampled in each site. This was carried out by listing and assigning numbers to all administrative units in the city and selecting units for inclusion using an online random number generator (https://www.randomizer.org/) after determining the sampling interval needed in each city to include the intended sample of 10 administrative units.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Point‐of‐sale promotion of breastmilk substitutes and commercially produced complementary foods in Cambodia, Nepal, Senegal and Tanzania

Champeny

Pereira²,

Sweet³

et al. 2016

Self Cite

In order to assess the prevalence of point‐of‐sale promotions of infant and young child feeding products in Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Kathmandu Valley, Nepal; Dakar Department, Senegal; and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, approximately 30 retail stores per site, 121 in total, were visited. Promotional activity for breastmilk substitutes (BMS) and commercially produced complementary foods in each site were recorded. Point‐of‐sale promotion of BMS occurred in approximately one‐third of sampled stores in Phnom Penh and Dakar Department but in 3.2% and 6.7% of stores in Kathmandu Valley and Dar es Salaam, respectively. Promotion of commercially produced complementary foods was highly prevalent in Dakar Department with half of stores having at least one promotion, while promotions for these products occurred in 10% or less of stores in the other three sites. While promotion of BMS in stores is legal in Senegal, it is prohibited in Cambodia without prior permission of the Ministry of Health/Ministry of Information and prohibited in both Nepal and Tanzania. Strengthening legislation in Senegal and enforcing regulations in Cambodia could help to prevent such promotion that can negatively affect breastfeeding practices. Key messages Even in countries such as Cambodia, Nepal and Tanzania where point‐of‐sale promotion is restricted, promotions of BMS were observed (in nearly one‐third of stores in Phnom Penh and less than 10% in Dar es Salaam and Kathmandu).Limited promotion of commercially produced complementary foods was evident (less than 10% of stores had a promotion for such foods), except in Dakar Department, where promotions were found in half of stores.Efforts are needed to strengthen monitoring, regulation and enforcement of restrictions on the promotion of BMS.Manufacturers and distributors should take responsibility for compliance with national regulations and global policies pertaining to the promotion of breastmilk substitutes.

“…In this cross-sectional survey, CM available for sale in the most populous city in Cambodia and Tanzania and in the largest metropolitan areas in Nepal and Senegal were purchased, and the information on their labels were captured and assessed. This formed part of a larger study that set out to collect data on a range of IYCF products, the results of which are reported elsewhere (Sweet et al 2016 Figure 1 presents a flow diagram of the data collection process. Phase 1, a scoping phase to create an inventory of CM available nationally, was designed to determine whether the product purchase conducted in each site (Phase 3) yielded at least 80% of the products theoretically available.…”

Section: Study Design and Research Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cross‐sectional survey shows that follow‐up formula and growing‐up milks are labelled similarly to infant formula in four low and middle income countries

Pereira¹,

Ford²,

Feeley³

et al. 2016

Self Cite

This cross‐sectional survey assessed the characteristics of labels of follow‐up formula (FUF) and growing‐up milk (GUM) compared with infant formula (IF), including cross‐promotion practices between FUF/GUM and IF manufactured by the same company, sold in Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Kathmandu Valley, Nepal; Dakar Department, Senegal; and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. All products were imported. A wide recommended age/age range for introduction was provided by manufacturers across all sites, with products with an age recommendation of 0–6 months being most prevalent in three sites, representing over a third of all products. Various age categories (e.g. 1, 1+ and Stage 1) commonly appeared on labels. A number of descriptive names (e.g. infant formula and milk formula) per category of age of introduction were used with some appearing across more than one category. Images of feeding bottles were found on most labels across all age categories, but prevalence decreased with older age categories. The majority of FUF/GUM manufactured by IF companies across all sites displayed at least one example of cross‐promotion with one or more of the company's IF: two‐thirds or more contained similar colour schemes/designs and similar brand names; 20–85% had similar slogans/mascots/symbols. A wide and potentially confusing range of ages/categories of introduction and descriptive names were found, and cross‐promotion with IF was common on FUF/GUM labels. Global guidance from normative bodies forms the basis of most low and middle income countries policies and should provide specific guidance to prohibit cross‐promotion between FUF/GUM and IF, and all three categories should be classified as breastmilk substitutes.