‘Aggressive’ marketing of formula milk flouts code, warns WHO as it urges curbs

Misleading' messages from $55bn-a-year industry are unethical', says report, which calls for plain packaging rules similar to tobacco

Countries should clamp down on the aggressive" and unethical" marketing of formula milk for babies, including forcing companies to sell products in plain packaging, a report by the World Health Organization and Unicef has said.

In research, commissioned 41 years after the global health community drew up guidelines aimed at regulating the industry, experts found that the marketing of formula had no limits" and had become more unregulated and invasive" in the digital age.