Nestle’s offer rejected

Press, 10 February 1983, Page 17

Nestle’s offer rejected

From

DIANA DEKKER

in London

The Nestle Food Company, which has been criticised for promoting canned baby milk in the Third World countries has made an unsuccessful attempt to link its name to the Save the Children Fund, Britain’s oldest overseas aid charity, according to the “Guardian” in London. The newspaper claims to have seen an internal S.C.F. document relating to the fund’s overseas committee meeting of last December and showing that Nestle offered to invest $2.4 million in a fund-raising campaign

for S.C.F. in the United States. The campaign would have shown that Nestle supported the fund. The paper shows that the fund was led to believe that about $24 million would be raised by the Nestle-financed campaign. A fund official told the “Guardian” that he understood that, had the offer been accepted, the fund-raising campaign would have con-

sisted of television advertising along the lines: “Nestle is helping to save the children: this time is paid for by Nestle.” Nestle, along with other manufacturers, has been attacked by War on Want and other groups for promoting canned baby milk in developing countries. In those countries, bottle-fed babies are five times more likely to die in infancy- than breast-fed

ones, according to U.N.I.C.E.F. Nestle annouced last May that it would abide by a World Health Organisation code of practice intended to prevent improper practices in marketing breast-milk substitutes, but a recent report by voluntary agencies accused scores of companies, including Nestle, of repeated violations of the code. Association with a charity like the Save the Children Fund could have helped Nestle in its attempt to counter an international boycott.