IBFAN-ICDC recently received a complaint about a TV news item on a commercial campaign by Nutricia in China to start in March. The Dutch multinational plans to give away free CDs to mothers in China if they buy Nutricia baby food. IBFAN-ICDC calls on Nutricia to put an immediate halt to this campaign because the promotion of baby food violates Article 5.4 of the International Code as well as the Chinese Rules Governing the Administration of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes.

Details of the Nutricia CD gift campaign are available as a PDF file (click here to download) and on a Baby Milk Action Campaign for Ethical Marketing action sheet (click here).

We urge Nutricia to heed this alert and call on all supporters of breastfeeding and the International Code to put pressure on the company to stop the CD gift campaign.

Please send your protest to Jan Bennink, CEO, NUMICO, the parent company of Nutricia, at press@numico.com (Baby Milk Action has drafted a suggested letter).

We also call upon the Ministry of Health in China and all relevant government ministries and agencies both in China and in the Netherlands to stop Nutricia from undermining China's infant feeding policy with a campaign of free gifts designed to entice Chinese mothers into purchasing Nutricia's products and in the process, discourage breastfeeding.

Over 20,000,000 babies are born in China annually and Nutricia will, in its own words, have "gold" in its hands if this campaign proceeds as planned.

For further information on this alert, contact:

Annelies Allain
Director
IBFAN/ICDC
P.O. Box 19
10700 Penang
Malaysia
email: ibfanpg@tm.net.my