MEPs vote in favour of infant formula firms

MEPs voted against the advice of the World Health Organisation, the EU Food Safety Authority and health and consumer bodies to allow food companies boast of the effects of adding a synthetic fatty acid to infant formula.

The omega-3 additive, known as DHA for short, occurs naturally in breast milk but there is no solid evidence that its synthetic variety plays the same role in helping brain and eye development in babies. Some scientists have expressed safety concerns.

Under EU legislation no claims can be made for food that are not scientifically proven, but the European Commission proposed to allow the baby formula company, Mead Johnson, to claim that DHA “contributes to the normal visual development of infants up to 12 months of age”.