Nestle Role In Alberta Conference Called Into Question
1st Annual Canadian Perinatal & Pediatric Nutrition Conference
Date & Time: September 25 - 26, 2009, 8:15 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Location: Bernard Snell Hall, University of Alberta Hospital
City/Town: Edmonton, AB
Description: This conference features two full days on obesity, allergies and other nutritional "hot topics" with expert faculty from across North America. It will be of interest to all those working with infants, children and nutrition including physicians, nurses, dietitians and pharmacists.
Early Bird Registration: $350
After August 15th: $400
One-day and student rates are also available
More Information: Call 780-735-1359 or e-mail RNFSEduc@cha.ab.ca
OUR COMMENT: This is the conference that the Infant Feeding Action Coalition (INFACT Canada) is out with an alert on, saying that organizers are allowing "unethical marketing" by Nestle.
Here is what INFACT Canada says:
INFACT Canada has learned that a pediatric nutrition conference slated for September has listed Nestlé Nutrition as a major sponsor. The Alberta Health Services First Annual Canadian Perinatal and Pediatric Nutrition Conference being held in Edmonton on September 25-26 is not only being sponsored by Nestlé, but one of its speakers will be a Nestlé employee.
It is a serious conflict of interest for a public health agency such as Alberta Health Services (AHS) to stage a pediatric nutrition conference in partnership with an infant formula manufacturer like Nestlé. Nestlé is notorious for its aggressive marketing of infant formula and obstinate rejection of the WHO International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes. The company recently launched a deceptive marketing campaign claiming that probiotics added to its formula will mimic the bifidus factor of human milk. It is no coincidence that one of the conference’s themes will be probiotics in infant nutrition.
As reported in a previous INFACT email, Nestlé’s new formula contains so-called “natural cultures” of bifidus bacteria, which are found in breastmilk. The company is marketing the new brand as equivalent to breastmilk. “There are only two places your baby can get natural cultures,” reads the advertising tagline, “The first is you. The other is from Nestlé Good Start Natural Cultures.” No scientific study is cited as proof that the bacterial cultures in this formula have the same effect on infants as breast milk.
We've seen no response to this from Alberta Health Services, the conference organizer.
