Advertising and promotion of infant formula baby milks
Pharmacists are reminded that the advertising and
promotion of baby milks is controlled under the Infant Formula and Follow-on
Formula Regulations 1995. Advertising, special displays designed to promote
sales, the provision of free samples and discounting and any other promotional
activity to induce the sale of an infant formula is prohibited at any
place where infant formula is sold by retail.
Advertising of infant formulae is only allowed in
publications specialising in baby care and distributed through the health
care system, in scientific publications or for the purposes of trade prior
to retail sale where the publication is not intended to be read by the
general public. In any case, such advertisements should only contain scientific
and factual information and should not imply or seek to create a belief
that bottle feeding is equivalent or superior to breast feeding.
A follow-on formula (ie, a food intended for particular
nutritional use by infants in good health, who are aged four months, and
constituting the principal liquid element in a progressively diversified
diet) may only be advertised if labelled with necessary information about
the appropriate use of the product so as not to discourage breast feeding
and not labelled with the terms “humanised” or “maternalised” or any similar
term suggesting that the product is equivalent or superior to breast milk.
If purchases are made or requests received for specialist
infant formulae, pharmacists should take care to ensure that the mother
has already received advice from a health visitor or other health care
professional on appropriate use so that an incorrect product is not purchased
which could result in the over-nourishment of the infant.
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