Nestlé baby‑food controversy
Social posts allege Nestlé is selling a Cerelac baby‑food variant with added sugar in Nigeria while European versions remain sugar‑free, and critics are calling on Nigeria’s NAFDAC to respond. (x.com) The complaint thread attracted about 3.8K likes and amplified a quoted post that itself had roughly 416 likes. (x.com)
Posts circulating in Nigeria are reviving a documented complaint from 2024: some Nestlé Cerelac cereals sold in African markets contained added sugar, while comparable European products did not. (publiceye.ch) The main evidence came from an April 17, 2024 investigation by Public Eye and the International Baby Food Action Network, which said it examined about 150 Nestlé products sold in lower-income countries. It reported that almost all Cerelac infant cereals it tested contained added sugar, averaging nearly 4 grams per serving. (publiceye.ch) Time, citing the same investigation, reported that the highest Cerelac sugar level found was 7.3 grams per serving in the Philippines and that a Nigerian sample reached 6.8 grams. The report also said equivalent products in Switzerland, Germany, the United Kingdom and France had no added sugar. (time.com) Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control answered the uproar on April 29, 2024. The regulator said the Nestlé infant and young-child foods distributed in Nigeria were registered under Nigerian Industrial Standards and Codex Alimentarius food standards. (nafdac.gov.ng) That response also drew a line between products. The agency said the Nido follow-up milk formula mentioned in some coverage was not registered in Nigeria and was not in circulation there, while the Cerelac range sold in Nigeria was registered locally. (nafdac.gov.ng) Nestlé said at the time that baby food is “highly regulated” and that its products comply with local regulations or international standards, including labeling rules and carbohydrate thresholds. The company did not dispute in that statement that formulations differ across markets. (time.com) The health argument behind the criticism is not new. The World Health Organization’s Europe office said in 2022 that products for infants and young children should not contain added sugars, and pediatric guidance from the European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition says no sugar should be added to complementary foods. (who.int) (espghan.org) Nestlé has since said it was introducing no-added-sugar Cerelac variants in African markets. In a 2025 response posted on Nestlé’s website, the company said such variants had already launched in South Africa, Djibouti and Egypt and were being rolled out further. (nestle.com) So the current Nigerian social-media flare-up is not based on a brand-new lab finding released this week. It is a fresh wave of attention on a 2024 investigation, a 2024 regulatory response from Nigeria, and Nestlé’s later pledge to expand no-added-sugar options in Africa. (publiceye.ch) (nafdac.gov.ng) (nestle.com)
