by Amy Spangler
June 24, 2007

With the launch of Baby Feeding Choice, it appears the International Formula Council (IFC) is expanding its efforts to reframe the discussion surrounding the distribution of formula samples by health care facilities and divert attention from the real issue—professional ethics.

According to Simon Montlake of the Christian Science Monitor, “The battle over how to regulate marketing for milk formula has taken on particular prominence in the Philippines, which has sought to extend a law known as the Milk Code.”

Milk companies insist that their target market is mothers who are unable or unwilling to breastfeed.

However, Ding Bing, a former marketing rep for Nestle in China, was quoted as saying, “The Swiss company told expecting mothers attending antenatal classes that Nestle’s Good Start formula was superior to breast milk and that many of them would be unable to produce sufficient breast milk for their baby.”

Bing says, “Young women in Chinese cities are misled by false advertising and their own doctors, who are paid by formula companies to give out information sheets and free samples of their products.”