A group of 20 African civil society organisations, including three from South Africa, have written an open letter to Nestlé, demanding the company stop adding sugar to baby food products – after a probe by Swiss investigative outfit Public Eye uncovered that 90% of Nestlé Cerelac, sold in 20 African countries, has sugar added.
In South Africa, Cerelac has 4g added sugar per serving, and 6g added sugar on average in several African countries, according to Public Eye.
In Switzerland, Germany and the United Kingdom, Cerelac has no added sugar, reports Joan van Dyk in GroundUp, but the company has, however, introduced two new no-added-sugar variants of Cerelac in this country.
Exceded
The amount of sugar found in South African Cerelac is more than that declared on package labels, Public Eye found, and not only that, the product is also being marketed to mothers in this country as a healthy and nutritious option, with media influencers appointed to promote this image.
Researchers told GroundUp that although only breast milk and specialised baby formulas are suitable for infants under six months, baby cereals are often used to stretch baby formula in rural areas of the Eastern Cape. This has led to cases of malnutrition.
Nestlé has rejected Public Eye’s findings as “misleading and scientifically inaccurate”.
Too much sugar
The WHO warns parents that a health risk of feeding babies too much sugar is that they can develop a sweet tooth, making make them more likely to develop chronic illnesses later in life.
Nestlé itself, the investigation points out, has a website for South African mothers that warns against high sugar intake for children and recommends unsweetened products for children. It recommends a limit of 4g of added sugar a day.
Nestlé’s global head of public affairs, Chris Hogg, said in response to the open letter by civil society organisations that Public Eye probably included sugars from cereal, milk and fruit sources in its analysis. When removing these sugars, the Cerelac products do not “contain the levels of added refined sugars they claim”, said Hogg.
But Public Eye investigator Laurent Gabarell told GroundUp that their analysis specifically excluded the sugars found in cereals and fruit.
Hogg also said Nestlé’s cereals always comply with local regulations. If there are no local regulations, products comply with the limits prescribed by the International Food Code, Codex Alimentarius.
This code allows up to 10g of added sugar per serving for baby cereals, which is higher than the 6g detected by Public Eye.
But Petronell Kruger of the Healthy Living Alliance says Codex has been vulnerable to industry lobbying.
Patti Rundall, policy director at the International Baby Food Action Network, says a baby food industry lobby group shut down criticism of high sugar content in baby cereals during a 2024 meeting of the labelling committee.
In a response to GroundUp, Nestlé said Cerelac variants with no added sugar are being rolled out and the company aims to have these products available in all of its markets by the end of 2025. “We offer variants with and without added sugars positioned in the same price range in both Africa and Europe,” the company said.
‘Champion meal’
The Public Eye report details how Cerelac and other baby foods with added sugar are being marketed in South Africa as a healthy, nutritious food choice for children. Adverts often draw on generations of brand loyalty.
Nestlé touts Cerelac as a good nutrition booster for babies as young as six months, and has promoted the product as a solution to “hidden hunger”, which is when children get enough calories but not enough nutrients to grow well. The company also recommends adding Cerelac to cooked vegetables.
Nestlé has contracted influencers, including athletics star Caster Semenya, to promote Cerelac. In 2023, Semenya told her 250 000 Facebook followers that Cerelac is a “champion meal” in her family. “I want (my daughter) to reach for the stars and all of that starts with what we feed her.”
While government regulations prohibit the advertising of infant formula for babies under the age of six months, baby cereals like Cerelac may be advertised, as long as the packaging declares protein content and explains that it should be prepared with boiled or clean water.
But according to public health researcher Nosihle Zingali, who has worked as a clinical dietician in rural areas for more than 10 years, parents in rural Eastern Cape often stretch formula milk with Cerelac.
These are also areas where households seldom meet the criteria, such as access to clean water, to safely switch to formula milk from breast milk.
A 2018 study found that 80% of babies in Gintyintsimbi, a village in rural Eastern Cape, were bottle-fed with formula by their third month, and nine out of 10 infants received a mixture of formula and cereal within their first six months.
Zingali said that families believe the mixture of formula and cereal keeps babies full and helps them gain weight. Feeding babies this mixture is seen as a sign of a “good mother”. Because the mixture is expensive, status has become attached to it.
There have also been cases of malnutrition in local hospitals, said Zingali, where babies fed only with the mix of formula and cereal have not received the nutrients they need. They are often swollen and may have severe diarrhoea, allergies and breathing problems.
Tamryn Frank, a nutrition researcher at the University of the Western Cape, said that if breast milk is not available for the first six months of an infant’s life, formula “has to meet strict criteria to make sure it fulfils a baby’s nutritional needs, but cereals do not”.
“Adding cereal to formula can cause problems in the baby’s gut as well because it changes the consistency of the mixture,” she said.
Even with the regulations banning the advertising of infant formula, digital marketing of breast milk substitutes is prevalent in South Africa and other countries, particularly through online influencers, baby clubs, advice forums and competitions.
Social media marketing of breast milk substitutes is rarely regulated, in part because environmental health practitioners tasked with enforcement are already stretched. They usually work in municipalities, and online campaigns often slip through the cracks.
GroundUp article – Calls for Nestlé to remove sugar from baby foods (Creative Commons Licence)
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