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UAE to regulate marketing of breast milk substitutes

ABU DHABI -The UAE government will enact a law on regulating marketing and promotion of breast-milk substitutes to avert spread of infant malnutrition in society, a senior health official has revealed.

"The UAE is seeking to endorse a draft bill to encourage breast-feeding. Efforts are underway to issue a national draft resolution in conformity with the 'International Code on Marketing Breast-milk Substitutes' that imposes regulations on marketing and promotion of breast-milk substitutes to ensure protection of infants," said Dr Hajir Al Housani, Director of the Central Maternity and Child Care Department at the Ministry of Health.

She told Khaleej Times the law will streamline marketing regulations, taking into consideration vulnerability of infants and risks involved in inappropriate feeding practices, including improper use of breast-milk substitutes.

It will also ensure proper use of breast-milk substitutes when necessary on the basis of adequate information and through appropriate marketing and distribution, she added.

Based on commercial profits, marketing, selling and distribution of breast-milk substitutes and "weaning food" or "breast-milk supplement" which is insufficient to satisfy the infant's nutritional requirements, had been lately on the rise.

The proposed law stipulates there should be no advertising or other form of promotion to the general public of breast-milk substitutes, including infant formula, other milk products, foods and beverages, including bottle-fed complementary foods when marketed or otherwise represented to be suitable, with or without modification, for use as a partial or total replacement for breast-milk.