New World Health Assembly resolution: Regulating the digital marketing of breastmilk substitutes

On 26 May 2025, the 78th World Health Assembly adopted the resolution for Regulating the digital marketing of breast-milk substitutes, including formula milk and baby foods. This resolution represents an extension of the provisions of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes (the Code) and subsequent WHA resolutions, aimed to protect parents, caregivers and families from misleading marketing by the commercial milk formula industry. This new resolution draws on various WHO guidance documents including the 2023 Guidance on regulatory measures aimed at restricting digital marketing of breast-milk substitutes. You can read more on the activities at the 78th WHA here: Baby Milk Action blog and WHA news update (27 May 2025).

A side event was held at the WHA on 21 May, on “Monitoring Digital Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes: Open Data & Global Accountability” and was hosted by Colansa (Comunidad de Práctica Latinoamérica y Caribe Nutrición y Saludand - Community of Practice for Nutrition and Health in Latin America and the Caribbean) and co-organised by IBFAN, Save the Children, ALSANNA (La Alianza Global para la Alimentación Saludable de Niñas, Niños y Adolescentes - The Global Alliance for Healthy Eating for Children and Adolescents), the World Obesity Federation (WOF), Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), the International Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA) and IDEC (Brazilian Institute of Consumer Protection), with the support of the Brazilian Ministry of Health, UNICEF and the Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI). The full recording of the side event, including talks by representatives of the WHO, Alive & Thrive, country delegates and more, is available here.

It is now the responsibility of countries and governments to update national legislation to incorporate the provisions of all WHA resolutions relating to the Code, and to invest in effective systems for routine monitoring and enforcement of national legislation.

In the UK, national legislation currently scores just 40 out of 100 in the 2024 International Code status report of national implementation of the Code, and violations of national legislation and the Code persist. It is therefore timely, relevant and essential for the UK government to strengthen existing legislation to align with the Code and all subsequent WHA resolutions and ensure sufficient monitoring and enforcement mechanisms.

An important first step would be for the government to fully implement the 11 recommendations made in the Competition and Markets Authority’s market study into infant and follow-on formula in the UK. We eagerly await the government response to the final CMA report and will continue to advocate for stronger marketing restrictions on commercial milk formula and associated products.

For more information about the Baby Feeding Law Group UK please visit our website Baby Feeding Law Group UK (bflg-uk.org) and sign up to our X account @BflgUk. You can also email katie@firststepsnutrition.org