Back make in India with testing in India

Abstract

“People are fed by the food industry, which pays no attention to health … and are treated by the health industry, which pays no attention to food,” was the caustic observation of American writer and environmentalist Wendell Berry. While this critiques the organised medical profession’s inattention to nutrition and the role of the food industry, public health votaries recognise the importance of adequate and appropriate nutrition across the life course and are vigilant about the role of the food industry in enabling or endangering health through myriad products that reach our mouths from the market. Hence the outrage at recent reports that Nestlé was marketing a baby food cereal in India and many other developing countries with higher sugar content than the version it marketed in Europe. Around the same time, reports of regulatory agencies in Hong Kong and Singapore banning masalas marketed by two Indian manufacturers aroused alarm.

The report on Nestlé’s baby food cereal (Cerelac) was released by Public Eye, a Swiss NGO, which conducted the study in partnership with the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN). IBFAN has been watching Nestlé since they battled over the manner in which the transnational food company marketed breast milk substitutes. Indian and global health authorities recommend exclusive breast milk feeding for the first six months of life because of its ideal nutrient composition, immunity-boosting properties, and support for the growth of a healthy microbiome in the baby’s gut, apart from promoting a close psychological bonding between mother and child. Commercial campaigns to promote breast milk substitutes have often undermined these health considerations.