PDF<\/a>) sent to Nestle CEO Philipp Navratil on November 17, 19 Africa-based civil society organisations said this demonstrated \u201cdouble standards\u201d and demanded that the company halt the distribution of baby products with added sugar in Africa. \u201cIf added sugar is not suitable for Swiss and European children, it is not suitable for children in Africa and beyond,\u201d the letter reads.<\/p>\n\u201cAll babies have an equal right to healthy nutrition \u2013 regardless of their nationality or skin color.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nestle has denied any wrongdoing and said Public Eye\u2019s report \u201ccontains misleading and unfounded allegations\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not have double standards, our approach to nutrition is consistent across all countries,\u201d a spokesperson told Al Jazeera. \u201cNestle is committed to the wellbeing of children everywhere in the world, and we treat all children equally, irrespective of where they are.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company said it offers versions of its cereals both with and without added sugar within the same price range in both Africa and Europe. It added that it is \u201caccelerating the rollout of no added sugars variants globally\u201d and that these are already available in 97 percent of Nestle\u2019s markets, including across Africa. \u201cWe aim to reach 100 percent by the end of 2025,\u201d the group said.<\/p>\n
Childhood obesity on the rise in Africa<\/p>\n
Childhood obesity is a rising concern in Africa, where the number of overweight children under five has nearly doubled since 1990, according to WHO. In most countries on the continent, malnutrition and obesity exist side by side, which the UN health agency describes as a \u201cdouble burden\u201d for the continent.<\/p>\n
Public Eye said it collected nearly 100 Cerelac products sold in 20 countries in Africa and had them analysed by Inovalys, a laboratory specialising in the agri-food sector. The NGO\u2019s investigation found that 90 percent of the samples it analysed contained added sugar.<\/p>\n
On average, each analysed serving of Cerelac sold in Africa was found to contain nearly six grams of added sugar, equivalent to around one-and-a-half sugar cubes. The highest quantity detected \u2013 7.5 grams per serving, almost two sugar cubes \u2013 was found in a Cerelac product for six-month-old babies being sold in Kenya.<\/p>\n
These quantities are 50 percent higher than those found by Public Eye in a 2024 investigation in which it assessed products sold in Asia and Latin America, and twice those detected in India \u2013 the largest market for Cerelac products worldwide.<\/p>\n
Nestle told Al Jazeera that it had requested further details about Public Eye\u2019s product analysis and methodologies, but had not yet received these.<\/p>\n
Nestle also said it adheres to strict labelling procedures. \u201cThe sugars content declared on our product packaging is based on rigorous assessments including via the use of reliable analytical methods by certified laboratories,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
Following last year\u2019s report, the Swiss multinational announced the introduction of 14 new Cerelac variants with no added sugar in India.<\/p>\n
Cerelac infant cereals, which are among the most popular in Africa, are marketed by Nestle as \u201cspecially designed to meet the nutritional needs\u201d of babies on the continent.<\/p>\n
Nestle told Al Jazeera that while obesity is on the rise in Africa, affecting 5 percent of children under five, undernutrition is in fact \u201cthe most urgent health concern\u201d. \u201cRegardless of geographical variations in recipes, we never compromise on the nutritional quality and safety of our products,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n
However, the civil society groups which sent the letter to Navratil, Nestle\u2019s CEO, accused the company of putting economic profit before people\u2019s welfare. \u201cLet us be clear: By adding sugar to infant cereals, Nestle is deliberately putting the health of African babies at risk for profit,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis must end \u2013 now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to the results of a previous report. Nestle is adding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[126],"tags":[234,35,1002,5709,5710,199,1202],"class_list":["post-7264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nestle","tag-africa","tag-food","tag-health","tag-inequality","tag-investigation","tag-nestle","tag-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}