The multi-national food giant Danone has been accused of misleading mothers with a controversial marketing campaign that warned they might not be providing enough breast milk. The company suggested mothers use powdered baby milk to make up any shortfall.

An investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism found that Danone has been marketing its formula milk product Aptamil in Turkey by suggesting mothers with six-month-old babies may not be providing enough of their own milk to meet their children’s needs.

The campaign boosted infant formula sales in Turkey by at least 15% and may have led to mothers moving their infants on to formula unnecessarily.

Danone says it based its advice on World Health Organisation (WHO) guidance, and claims that both the WHO and UN agency UNICEF endorsed the campaign.

‘Turkish UNICEF and WHO, together with other partners (Ministry of Health, TV stations, supermarkets, Paediatric Association) supported this campaign, with WHO allowing its logo to be used on printed materials,’ it told the Bureau.

The campaign had increased mothers’ estimation of the amount of breast milk fed to their babies by 63%, it added.

Strongly denied

But the WHO has demanded that Danone stop using its name and logo while UNICEF has categorically denied endorsing the company’s actions.

The episode has echoes of the baby milk controversies of the 1970s, which led to the international boycott of Nestle and illustrates the importance of emerging markets to Western multinationals.

‘Danone’s campaign is misleading,’ said Dr Colin Michie, chair of the British Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health’s nutrition Committee.

‘There is not enough evidence to support its approach.’

Dr Michie added: ‘Mothers who accept and follow Danone’s advice could end up moving their babies on to formula milk unnecessarily.’

The company insists that the campaign was aimed at discouraging ‘inappropriate’ substitutions for milk such as rice flour, rather than ‘competing with breast milk’.