Nestlé Talks Up the Sugar Content in Baby Foods, Denies ‘Racial Stereotyping’

Nestle India has strongly refuted allegations of selling infant foods with higher sugar content in developing nations, asserting its global formulations cater to children's nutritional needs irrespective of geography or race.

Nestle India chairman and managing director Suresh Narayanan have stood by the sugar content in the organization's well-known Cerelac infant cereal, shooting down the claims that the compositions are different in different countries founded on racial ideologies.

Statements on this issue such as "the formulations are 'racially stereotyped' is inappropriate and incorrect" has circulated following the release of a report claiming Nestle's baby food products sold in India contain higher levels of added sugar compared to versions in other markets.

The row started when a report that was earlier prepared by the Swiss NGO Public Eye and IBFAN (the International Baby Food Action Network) accused Nestle of selling infant foods with more sugar content in developing countries such as India compared to the products that are offered in the European countries.

But Narayanan was absolutely in disagreement with the claims, saying that the nutritional formulas produced by Nestle are developed on the global scale and contain the required by the babies under 18 months old nutrients, no matter where these babies live.

"This is a global approach to providing nutritious meals. There is nothing local about it. All over the world, this is when energy dense products are needed by growing children. This means there is nothing that is distinguishing between a child in Europe and another in Asia or anywhere else in the world," he said.

The particularities narrated by Narayanan mentioned that while India’s food safety regulator FSSAI allows upto 13.6 grams of added sugar per 100 grams of infant cereal, Nestle Cerelac has only 7.1 grams of them, which is much lower than the prescribed limit.

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"This product does not contain ingredients that can be considered to be risky or bad for children," he concluded, and said that the sugars in the product are mainly natural sugars and not refined sugars.

The Nestle India head was more specific in his statement that the standardization was made globally while it is adjusted locally because of the regulations, availability of raw materials, and the feeding habits of the cultures but it is not based on the racial lines.

Said Narayanan, "Sugar added products and natural acidity ones are also sold in Asia as well as Europe." Thus, such claims are unfortunate and incorrect.