New paper: Profits Before Health? New Zealand Government Rejection of Stricter Infant Formula Marketing Standards and the Lobbying Behind It
On 6 August 2025, a Perspective Article was published in the Maternal and Child Nutrition journal, written by Naomi Hull and colleagues in Australia. This paper provides a timely country case study of how transnational dairy and baby food corporations lobbied the New Zealand (NZ) government, exerting strong political influence and using economic arguments, to reject updated infant formula standards, despite strong evidence for policy designed to protect infant health and despite support across Australia for reform. The researchers sourced data through NZ Official Information Act requests, which included communications between commercial milk formula (CMF) industry lobbyists and the government representatives including the Prime Minister and cabinet ministers of the NZ Government. The Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) is the government body responsible for setting joint food standards for Australia and NZ and these standards (specifically 2.9.1) regulate the composition, labelling and sale of infant formula products. In 2012, the FSANZ started a process to review regulatory requirements for infant formula, which included seven rounds of public consultation. Two CMF companies provided strong opposition to recommendations to restrict sales of specialised formulas and claims on infant formula packaging, indicating that this would have economic implications through reduced exports to China. In 2024, the NZ government announced its decision to opt out of the proposed new standard, despite evidence that the revised standard's benefits to infant health outweighed industry impact.
Neither Australia nor NZ have effective regulations to legislate the Code. This case study illustrates weaknesses in NZ's political transparency laws, where no mandatory lobbying registers and reporting requirements exist. It also demonstrates how the CMF industry has a notable level of access to and influence over politicians.
The researchers provide strong statements in the conclusions, that
“Ensuring that infant feeding decisions are not influenced by commercial marketing is crucial to population health.
Governments must withstand corporate pressures to expand trade and instead prioritise the health and safe nutrition of this most vulnerable group.”
The researchers further conclude that “it is crucial for governments to make policy decisions without the influence of the baby food industry and provide a strong argument for better regulation of corporate lobbying”.
This article provides a timely and critical lesson for the UK government. Industry responses to the work of the Competition and Markets Authority on infant formula and follow-on formula (here and here) include inadequate attempts to challenge the evidence supporting some public health recommendations on infant and young child feeding in the UK. We shared this paper with contacts in the DHSC and hope that they have taken on board the lessons of what has happened in NZ as they finalise their response to the CMA’s recommendations.