COP27 – Can lessons be learned and the UPF trade controlled?
As world leaders meet in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt for the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (Cop 27), IBFAN is calling for restrictions on the global production and trade of ultra-processed (UPFs) plastic-wrapped and additive-laden products. While many nutrition campaigns have focused on excess sugar, salt and fat, less attention has been paid to the industrial food processing that extends product life for global trade, denatures food ingredients and has had a disastrous impact on human health and the environment. The latest analysis shows that UPF consumption is a significant cause of premature death in Brazil.(1)
IBFAN is especially concerned about the production and trade of the unnecessary UPFs for babies – many sweetened and flavoured – that are aggressively and misleadingly promoted by corporations such as Nestlé, Danone, Reckitt, Abbott and Mead Johnson. (2) These products include formulas and drinks that are undermining healthy, bio-diverse family foods, fuelling the obesity epidemic and undermining breastfeeding – the nutritional, immunological health protective norm that is a lifeline for many children.
While it is a fundamental right of all mothers to decide how to feed their children, in order to exercise those rights there needs to be legal protection from predatory marketing, supportive hospital practices and adequate maternity protection. There should also be access to products that are not harmful. Breastfeeding is the most environmentally friendly way to feed an infant resulting in zero waste, minimal greenhouse gases, and negligible water footprint. Higher ambient temperatures caused by global warming exacerbate food-borne diseases, leaving infants and young children most at risk of severe illness.(3).
https://www.babymilkaction.org/archives/35311