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Food and beverage giant Nestlé adds sugar and honey to its infant milk and cereal products in developing countries but not in European markets, according to a new report published Wednesday.
In a joint investigation, Zurich-based watchdog Public Eye and the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) sent popular baby food samples in Asia, Latin America, and Africa from Nestlé—the world’s largest consumer goods corporation worth $265.57 Billion of April 2024—to a testing laboratory in Belgium. The study examined 150 products sold by the company in low and middle-income nations, including best-selling brands Cerelac and Nido.
“We targeted sugar because that’s the number one enemy when it comes to nutritional health,” Laurent Gaberell, Public Eye’s agriculture and nutrition expert, tells TIME. “Exposure to sugar at an early age of babies and infants can be very problematic. It’s one of the key factors behind the obesity crisis. If babies are exposed to sugar, they basically have a higher risk of being obese later, and suffering adverse health outcomes such as diabetes, hypertension, and other chronic diseases.”
The results of the testing found that “almost all” Cerelac wheat-based cereals by Nestlé in those regions, targeted at infants from six months of age, contained added sugar equivalent to an average of 4 grams per serving, or a sugar cube. The highest volume of sugar added to a product, at 7.3 grams per serving, was detected in the Philippines, followed by 6.8 grams in Nigeria and 5.9 grams in Senegal. Additionally, seven out of 15 countries did not declare on product labels that sugar was added.
Meanwhile Nido powdered-milk products aimed at toddlers aged one to three contained almost two grams of added sugar per serving, with milk powder in Panama recording highs of 5.3 grams. This was followed by findings of 4.7 grams of sugar per portion in Nicaragua, and 1.8 grams in Mexico.
Public Eye and IBFAN found that sugar was not added…
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