Online reviews for a Kendal firm’s baby formula have been banned over their ‘misleading’ health and nutrition claims.
Kendamil is made by Kendal Nutricare and two complaints were made to the Advertising Standards Authority about the nature of the reviews on the Kendamil website.
One of the complaints was from the British Specialist Nutrition Association.
The reviews page featured images of people with their babies and a customer-submitted review of Kendamil’s products.
The complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority said they confused infant and follow-on formula, made health claims, implied it could a food that prevented, treated or cured human disease and discouraged breastfeeding.
Kendal Nutricare said the quotes had been automatically pulled from reviews on social media and third-party sites and as a result, it did not have any control over their content.
However, the Advertising Standards Authority disagreed.
It said: “We considered that the website was under Kendamil’s control, and was directly connected with the supply of goods through their online shop.
“The website and its contents were therefore an ad.”
The reviews featured a number of claims, including:
- My son is nine months old and been on it since birth
- My daughter was suffering with colic and constipation but as soon as I switched to this milk it stopped straightaway
- After breastfeeding I was worried about the transition to formula. I researched high and low for a formula brand … that would benefit my daughter the way breastmilk had
- Not only is great for her development, but also tastes yummy.
Kendamil said it did not think the claims made in the ad confused infant formula and follow-on formula, it did not believe it discouraged breastfeeding and the claim “benefit my daughter the way breastmilk had” was intended to mean that the formulas they produced were the closest to breastfeeding.
It provided evidence which they said substantiated the claims “benefit my daughter the way breastmilk had”, “great for her development” and stopped constipation and colic.
However, the Advertising Standards Authority said there was a lack of clarity in the reviews over the infant and baby formula and many of the babies featured were not identifiable as being over six months old.
It added: “We therefore considered that the ad had the effect of marketing infant formula and the ad also confused between infant and follow-on formulas. We concluded that it had breached the code.”
The authority’s ruling added that regulations are in place so companies do not discourage breastfeeding.
It said: “We considered that consumers would understand the claim ‘benefit my daughter the way breastmilk had’ as meaning that Kendamil’s products were a very close equivalent to breastmilk, which would provide almost exactly the same nutritional and other benefits to babies as breastmilk.
“We considered that could encourage consumers to use formula instead of breastmilk, and therefore that the ad had the effect of discouraging breastfeeding.
“We concluded that the ad breached the code on that basis.”
The authority said: “The ad must not appear again in the form complained about.
“We told Kendal Nutricare Ltd to ensure that their future marketing communications did not refer, either implicitly or explicitly, to infant formula and did not confuse between infant and follow-on formulas; make claims or statements that discouraged breastfeeding; make health or nutrition claims for infant formula; and state or imply that a food could prevent, treat, or cure human disease.”
Ross McMahon, of Kendal Nutricare, said after the ruling: “Parents are so enthusiastic about how well their babies respond to Kendamil that they happily share their personal stories and online reviews with us.
“We have realised that we must advise parents in the future about the ASA’s strict regulations, and to only review Kendamil’s performance after their baby is six months old and to always use the terminology baby, not infants.
“It makes us proud to see how Kendamil helps families, and we will continue to ensure that these reviews meet the ASA standards.”
