Archive site - new site at www.babymilkaction.org

I attended the Nestlé shareholder meeting on 10 April 2014 with a colleague from the Geneva Infant Feeding Association (GIFA), a partner in the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN). We both raised concerns about Nestlé's marketing of breastmilk substitutes - and exposed how Nestlé endangers health and misleads shareholders. There were over 2,700 shareholders attending the meeting, representing 66% of the shares, with more watching the live webcast. We will continue to remind them that Nestlé needs to change its ways.

To support our work holding corporations to account, please become a member or make a donation.

For other action to take, see the Nestlé-Free Zone.

Danone promotion of its Cow & Gate brand of baby milk in ASDA has been brought to Baby Milk Action's attention.

We are communicating with ASDA about the promotion and the misleading claims being used in it. Curiously, ASDA told us it was unaware of the promotion and we encouraged management to investigate and take action. The promotion has appeared on table displays in the ASDA café, on shelf-talkers next to products and in leaflets promoting a "Baby and Toddler Event" currently taking place in ASDA stores. People are encouraged to put questions to ASDA pharmacy staff. They are also encouraged to visit ASDA's "Baby and Toddler Club" website, though a disclaimer states no responsibility is taken for the accuracy of the information provided.

ASDA has told us: "We are looking into your concerns."

The following article was written by Franklin Fredrick (originally in German). Franklin campaigned successfully against Nestlé's destructive water bottling operation in the historic spa town of São Lourenço, Brazil, publicly challenging Nestlé Chairman, Peter Brabeck-Letmathé, about his company's failure to comply with Brazilian regulations. It finally took the threat of daily fines to persuade Nestlé to stop over-pumping, ten years after the campaign began. Similar campaigns continue in other communities from Pakistan to Canada. 

Please sign and share Baby Milk Action's petition against Nestlé and Danone involvement in the Department of Health Change4Life health education campaign in England and Wales. 

Click here for the petition.

The blog below provides supporting evidence.

Nestlé held its Creating Shared Value Global Forum in Colombia on Monday 28 October 2013, opened by the President of Colombia and Nestlé Chairman, Peter Brabeck-Letmathé. 

As luck would have it, International Nestlé-Free Week started the same day, a time for people who boycott Nestlé over the way it pushes baby milk to do more to promote the boycott - and for those who don't boycott to give it a go.

Which meant that Nestlé's twitter feed from the Global Forum became a channel for exposing its marketing malpractice.

The tie-up between Google and Nestlé through the new Android KitKat smartphone operating system is prompting a reaction in the media and amongst campaigners. This reminder of Nestlé malpractice comes in the lead up to International Nestlé-Free Week, taking place from 28 October - 3 November 2013 (in some countries this covers Halloween).

A cartoon by Nitrozac and Snaggy is receiving a lot of attention. Click here or on the thumbnail left to view.

The business press sees trouble for Google, with an article in Forbes sugesting: Google Might Have Walked Into A Nestle Boycott Problem With Android KitKat

And the industry press asking: Android KitKat: Is Nestle tie-in a PR disaster for Google?

Google's own first-page of search results on Android KitKat includes a BBC report citing concerns over Nestlé baby milk marketing and pet food recalls.

Media coverage (mentioning the boycott): Forbes, BBC, Telegraph, TechWeekEurope, Bubblenews.

Industry analysis: Android KitKat: Is Nestle tie-in a PR disaster for Google?

Did Google try googling for information about Nestlé KitKat and controversy before deciding to brand its new smartphone operating system as Android KitKat?

Presumably not as the first page of results turns up Baby Milk Action's page about KitKat being on the boycott list because of Nestlé pushing of baby milk (at least at the time of writing - we will be watching to see what happens to search listings following the Nestlé tie-in). Click on the screenshot left for a large version. Click here for information on the boycott.

Baby Milk Action has been highlighting for many years that follow-on milks and so-called growing-up milks are unnecessary products. The World Health Organisation issued a new report in July 2013 restating this point. First Steps Nutrition Trust has analysed the composition of fortified milks for toddlers and warned that "the voluntary fortification of foods and drinks needs to be questioned as there is increasing evidence that giving additional nutrients to those who do not need them may have adverse consequences".

Now a new report from the consumer magazine Which? has quantified the extent to which parents are being ripped off. Citing the example of Nestlé's SMA milks, Which? says parents could save £531 by using cow's milk instead of SMA-branded toddler milk, with nutrients such as iron coming from other foods that should be introduced from the age of 6 months in any case. 

Nestlé has entered the UK formula market and aggressive marketing practices - and underhand tactics - familiar to those monitoring its practices around the world are now being seen here. Nestlé booked the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) for an event targeting health workers on 9 July 2013 under a different name, Baby Milk Action was told, otherwise the RCP would not have accepted the booking. Baby Milk Action handed out leaflets on conflicts of interest to those arriving for the event on obesity in pregnancy and infancy. The next event in the series, scheduled for 11 July in Birmingham, is today shown as 'cancelled' on Nestlé's site promoting the events.

Baby Milk Action has been contacted repeatedly about two events being sponsored by Danone in the UK in coming days: Tommy's baby race on 30 June, promoting the Cow & Gate formula brand, and a Royal College of Midwives training event on 11 July.

Baby Milk Action is highlighting how these strategies violate marketing requirements and is calling for an open debate on sponsorship and conflicts of interest.

These events follow Nestlé's entry into the UK market, which has seen more aggressive marketing practices, driving down standards for the industry as a whole. At present Nestlé is targeting health workers around the country, trying to entice them to events at hotels. Baby Milk Action is organising protests outside these events - click here to find an event near you.

It's not a free lunch - it's a Nestlé marketing strategy

Nestlé is actively targeting health workers in the UK having completed its takeover of Pfizer Nutrition/Wyeth and the SMA brand of formula in December 2012.

On 24 May 2013 it held an event in Histon, near Cambridge, for midwives and Doulas on water births - though the Nestlé Nutrition representative was also on hand and a session on SMA products was scheduled.

Such events violate World Health Assembly Resolutions on conflicts of interest and so Baby Milk Action was present at the entrance to the Holiday Inn where the event was being staged to inform participants of this fact.

The attached leaflet was provided to anyone willing to take it.

Baby Milk Action is preparing a kit of materials to enable others to do the same wherever Nestlé, its leading competitor, Danone, or other baby food companies target health workers with sponsorship.

See the Nestlé demonstration page for a list of forthcoming events.

As soon as news of the demonstration was posted to social media, experts were offering to provide training without baby food company involvement - free of charge, if necessary.

The UK Association of Milk Banks (UKAMB) - one of our partners in the Baby Feeding Law Group - is promoting this day in the UK.

Find out more about what is happening on the UK AMB site: http://www.ukamb.org/

For details of the event at Queen Charlotte's & Chelsea Hospital Milk Bank and how to give your support see:

http://www.ukamb.org/2013/05/14/world-breastmilk-donation-day-19th-may/

A new monitoring report commissioned by UNICEF Lao has just become available and looks at marketing from November 2011 to January 2012. The monitoring found sales representatives, principally from Nestlé and Danone, targeting health workers, shop keepers and parents.

The World Breastfeeding Conference (6 - 9 December 2012) came to an end in Delhi with participants from 86 nations approving a declaration that:

"calls upon all concerned to adopt a human right based approach to the protection, promotion, and support of breastfeeding and infant and young child feeding at international, national, and community levels."

This is a very powerful concept, backed by international law, which campaigners can use in calling on policy makers to act. We can use it to challenge governments that have failed to provide maternity protection or to regulate the marketing of breastmilk substitutes or that invest in the baby milk industry to boost economic growth while failing to protect, promote and support breastfeeding.

But what does it mean to say breastfeeding is a human right? And what about babies who are not breastfed and mothers who do not breastfeed? Here's the way I understand it.

Media coverage: Irish Times 16 November 2012, The Sunday Business Post 16 November.

Baby Milk Action has been asked to support a campaign in Ireland against baby food companies sponsoring awards to health workers. The event's main sponsor is Pfizer/Wyeth, which is in the process of being taken over by Nestlé, and it uses the awards to promote its SMA brand of formula by calling them the SMA Know-How Maternity and Infant Awards. Danone, manufacturer of Aptamil and Cow & Gate brands, is also trying to get in on the advertising opportunity by using its formula brands for some of the awards.

Click here for the petition.

Earlier this year (June 2012), members of the public protested to shopping centres in the UK that were going to host Pfizer/Wyeth's SMA Baby Know How roadshow and this was cancelled - see press release.

In September 2012, Pfizer/Wyeth was found to have misled parents in an SMA advertising campaign in a ruling by the UK Advertising Standards Authority - see press release.

A representative of the Hipp baby food company was interviewed on BBC Radio 4 You and Yours programme on 5 November 2012, together with Dr. Helen Crawley of the First Steps Nutrition Trust (click here to listen again).

The discussion was about the refusal of Hipp to provide correct guidance on how to reconstitute its powdered infant formula. The facts, as Dr. Crawley explained, are clear. The Department of Health confirmed its guidance had not changed, despite Hipp claiming in the programme that it had been given permission to flout the guidance.

UNICEF has published a report today called: "Preventing Disease and Saving Resources: the potential contribution of increasing breastfeeding rates in the UK". 

UNICEF'S press release states: "The report findings show that for just five illnesses, moderate increases in breastfeeding would translate into cost savings for the NHS of £40 million and tens of thousands of fewer hospital admissions and GP consultations." 

The British Journal of Midwifery has published a letter from Baby Milk Action after a member of its editorial board defended accepting infant formula advertising, which has been criticised by readers. Professor Lewis suggested that concerns about such advertising are due to "enmity and distrust" and suggested the priority should be on "resolving differences".

My letter is reproduced below.

Rachel's Dairy has been added to the Nestlé boycott list as it is now owned by Lactalis Nestlé Chilled Dairy (LNCD).

A new folder has been launched by the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action for World Breastfeeding Week 1 - 7 August 2012.

It has the theme: 

"Understanding the past, planning for the future - celebrating 10 years of WHO/UNICEF's Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding."

Wyeth manufactures the SMA range of formulas. It was planning a series of SMA Baby Know-How events in the UK, to start on 14 June 2012. These break marketing rules. 

None of the events went ahead as shopping centres pulled out and Wyeth cancelled the whole roadshow on 20 June - click here for Baby Milk Action's press release.

However, Wyeth says the roadshow is only postponed, so the campaign continues.

Click to join the campaign (Opens in a new window. Remember to share this page on Facebook if you use it). 

Many thanks to supporter Nigel Harrison for creating the MyMeter detector simulator iPhone app for Baby Milk Action.

This is a fun detector simulator. Watch the film clip to see what it does and how it works.

Nestlé demonstration - Croydon

11:00 - 12:00 Saturday 19 May 2012

Download the flier with map, car park and travel details - click here

Join the virtual demonstration on Facebook - click here.

Nestlé has quietly weakened its Policy and Instructions for Implementation of the WHO International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes.

Click here to download as a pdf file.

Nestlé is in court in Switzerland on 24th and 25th January 2012 for running spies in the Swiss campaign group, ATTAC. 

We have received shocking news from the United Reformed Church (URC) Secretary for Church and Society.

Baby Milk Action recently formed the Conflict of Interest (COI) Coalition, bringing together - so far - over 140 international networks and civil society organisations calling for the United Nations to avoid conflicts of interest as it sets policies on obesity, diabetes and other Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs).

The Coalition represents thousands of non-profit public health advocacy groups around the world.

Updated: 7 April 2014

Click here to download this briefing paper as a pdf file. The online version links to references.

For IBFAN's briefing on FTSE4Good - click here.

Nestlé is listed in the FTSE4Good ethical investment Index. Nestlé’s Chairman tells people this demonstrates it complies with baby food marketing requirements. This is not the case. FTSE has asked Nestlé more than once to stop misrepresenting what inclusion signifies. Here is the background.

An article published at BioMed Central entitled What could infant and young child nutrition learn from sweatshops? concludes: "Lessons from the sweatshops debate could serve as a model to promote cooperation and trust between public and private groups, such that they learn to work together towards their common goal of improving infant and young child nutrition."

The article misses the point that campaigners are in ongoing communication with company executives. The failure of executives to abide by marketing requirements and the way they try to excuse practices and discredit critics demonstrates their focus is not on a 'common goal of improving infant and young child nutrition', but on maximising profits. They can comply with marketing requirements when forced to do so - as in Brazil and India, for example (breastfeeding rates have recovered in the former and the formula market is failing to grow in the latter) - but elsewhere violations are commonplace and it takes public pressure to stop them. There are offers on the table for meeting when companies indicate they are serious about complying with the marketing requirements. Until they do so, methods that have helped to protect the vulnerable in many countries will continue to be pursued.

I have posted the following response as a comment to the article.

It has been a busy month for Nestlé as it tries to remake the world in its own image. It culminated in Nestlé announcing "The first comprehensive nutrition system for babies", a machine that squirts out milk into feeding bottles for new borns (click here for our press release and quote). How on earth has the human race survived without there being a way to provide nutrition to its young? In Nestlé's world, the past is prelude and the fact that babies were once nurtured by milk produced by their mothers' bodies is to be consigned to our primitive past it seems. Nestlé, Good Grief!.

 Baby Milk Action will be joining partners in the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) in Geneva on 12 May to present the latest global report on baby food company marketing practices.

The Breaking the Rules, Stretching the Rules 2010 monitoring report has examples of violations from 46 countries. There are profiles of 11 leading baby food companies, with market leaders Nestlé and Danone responsible for many of the violation examples included.

Headlines claiming that scientists have produced 'breastmilk' from Genetically Modified (GM) cows should sound alarm bells for policy makers as they vote this week in the European Parliament on whether to improve measures for approving health claims on formula. Firstly, this story demonstrates once again that existing formulas lack many of the components found in breatmilk, three of which the researchers claim now to be able to produce from different GM cows. Given the existing misleading claims that formula companies put on labels, about how their formula boosts the immune system and supports brain and eye development for example, over a third of parents already believe formula is "very similar or the same" as breastmilk according to a survey by the UK Department of Health. Secondly, the GM cow's are not producing 'human breast milk' (hence the quotes in the reports), but are potentially a source of some of the missing components. Other components, some of which may still need to be discovered, and living substances, are not being produced by the cows and the milk will still require subsequent processing even if it was found to be beneficial and safe (aside from animal welfare and environmental considerations).

Get ready for another round of 'Breast not best' headlines in the UK that will echo around the world as a book by Joan Wolf, a political scientist, is launched here. It has the title: "Is Breast Best?: Taking on the Breastfeeding Experts and the New High Stakes of Motherhood" and Joan Wolf is speaking on it at a conference on 21 March.

Well, today we were alerted by a member, Anne Adamson, to a promotion of Nescafe - right outside our office in Cambridge.  

We went downstairs with a couple of placards and some leaflets.

As we prepared to take some pictures the group leader kept moving the promotion further and further down the street,  threatening to sue us  if we showed his face in our picture.  

One of the activities in our Make a Mark in 2010 initiative was to develop an online training course on monitoring the baby food industry.

The technology has been put in place and the first module has now been made live on our website. Further modules in the 8-module course will be added over the coming months.

Q and A with Mike Brady

The Mumsnet parenting website invited their followers to post questions to be answered by Mike Brady, Campaigns and Networking Coordinator at Baby Milk Action, and the moderators selected the following as representative.

Edited versions of these answers have been posted on the Mumsnet site - full answers are given here.

Browse the questions selected by Mumsnet below and click on the links to go straight to Mike Brady's full answer.

A senior member of the World Health Organisation (WHO) responsible for the UN Global Compact has moved to Nestlé as Vice President for Corporate Affairs. The Global Compact is a voluntary initiative aiming to persuade corporations to abide by a set of Principles on human rights and the environment. Baby Milk Action and other Nestlé Critics filed complaints with the UN Global Compact Office in 2009 under so-called Integrity Measures alleging egregious violations of the Global Compact Principles, but the Office refused to investigate these. Despite the complaint about Nestlé's aggressive marketing of baby food in violation of international standards and other on-going concerns, the Global Compact Office accepted Nestlé as a patron sponsor of its 10th anniversary summit in New York in July 2010 (see press release UN Global Compact - 10 years of helping cover up corporate malpractice). Now it has been reported that the WHO officer responsible for promoting industry alliances with the UN Global Compact moved to Nestlé in October 2010 to take up a position as Vice President. While this is a worrying indication of the close relationship between the UN Global Compact staff and industry, Baby Milk Action is calling on Nestlé newest Vice President, Janet Voûte, to use her position to try to stop her new colleagues violating the Global Compact principles.

It is International Nestlé-Free Week at the end of October. Our press release can be found at:

http://info.babymilkaction.org/pressrelease/pressrelease10oct10

I saw a comment on one discussion board where someone had posted a link: "sorry .. but some people cant breast feed .. so making people feel guilty because they cant .. no thanks ..."

I posted the following comment:

The UN Secretary General, Ban KI-moon, is today announcing a worldwide campaign to save the lives of 16 million mothers and children over the next five years and a fund of US$40 billion to help achieve this goal. See The Guardian.

This is wonderful news - and we should perhaps not be too surprised to find that Nestlé, a company with a long record of abusing women and child rights, is trying to muscle in on the initiative to try to distract attention from its on-going aggressive marketing of baby milks in breach of international standards and other much-criticised practices.

Far too many mothers and children die from preventable causes. While we welcome the new United Nations initiative, we should also remember that there are far cheaper, but politically more difficult, steps that can be taken to reduce unnecessary child deaths: implementing and enforcing existing measures adopted by the United Nations. Over 140,000 people have signed a rolling petition calling for policy makers to take action to protect, promote and support breastfeeding, with over 3,000 addressing a specific message to the Secretary General over the last three days. See the ONE MILLION CAMPAIGN.

In the area of infant feeding, the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes is helping to save lives in many countries, but many more have yet to implement it and the subsequent, relevant Resolutions of the World Health Assembly. These international minimum standards aim to protect breastfeeding and ensure breastmilk substitutes are used safely when necessary and companies are called on to abide by them independently of government action, but do not do so.

Worse still, the United Nations Global Compact, a voluntary initiative intended to improve the behaviour of transnational corporations, has been found to be complicit in working with companies such as Nestlé to allow violations of the Code and Resolutions to continue: it accepts Nestlé funding to promote the initiative and posts on its website Nestlé's PR materials claiming the company abides by the Code and Resolution, but refuses to investigate reports of egregious violations of the Global Compact Principles registered under the initiatives Integrity Measures. There are also concerns that corporations will be using the UN Secretary General's new initiative as a way to improve their images, while continuing to abuse human rights. 

A MESSAGE FROM THE ONE MILLION CAMPAIGN

Dear Friend,

Globally 3.6 million Infants die before they reach their first birthday and millions are malnourished because of inadequate and inappropriate breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices.

Most effective interventions to save babies’ lives and prevent malnutrition is to enhance early and exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months, and good complementary feeding thereafter along with continued breastfeeding.  For this, women needed to be supported.

The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki- moon will launch the Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health at a special event during the MDG Summit in New York on 22nd  September.

Let's call upon the UN Secretary General to ensure support to women. 

The newly formed coalition Government in the UK has prioritised cutting public expenditure and the deficit and has also launched a campaign to scrap or amend unnecessary or ineffective legislation. The public are being invited to submit suggestions. 

Baby Milk Action is suggesting the Government simplify the Infant Formula and Follow-on Formula Regulations. Currently advertising and promotion of infant formula is prohibited, but follow-on formula can be advertised, a double standard with financial and health implications. In addition, the information on infant formula is regulated, but companies can make claims about health benefits on follow-on formula labels with impunity. Bringing follow-on formula within the same restrictions as infant formula will protect breastfeeding and babies fed on formula.  You can support this suggestion by clicking on the 5th star under the heading 'Add a Rating' and leaving comments on the Government website - click here.

Nestlé is promoting its breastmilk substitutes with the claim they are, 'The new "Gold Standard" in infant nutrition' (June 2010). What does Paul the psychic octopus, who predicted the World Cup winners, think is the real gold standard?

Image by a supporter of Baby Milk Action's 'email Nestle' campaign: http://info.babymilkaction.org/emailnestle

Media coverage: Ekklesia 1 July 2010

We have just learned that the forthcoming Assembly of the United Reformed Church (4 July) presents an ideal opportunity to put pressure on Nestlé to stop its systematic violations of the World Health Assembly's marketing requirements for baby foods. If you will be attending the Assembly, please look at the up-to-date information in this site, particularly concerning Nestlé's current global baby milk marketing scam. Nestlé is claiming its baby milk 'protects' babies even though it knows babies fed on it are more likely to become sick than breastfed babies and, in conditions of poverty, more likely to die. Contact me if you would like to discuss this further. Nestlé puts its profits before all else and the changes we have compelled it to make have come from exposure, and the public backing the boycott and telling Nestlé they are doing so.

The Nestlé boycott works its magic again as sponsorship of the BlogHer conference by its Stouffer brand comes under scrutiny. The Conference is due to take place in New York in the United States (6 - 7 August). Ironically, this came to my attention by a posting on a blog by someone defending her decision to attend Nestlé's parenting-blogger event in California in October 2009, which led to a first-class public relations disaster on Twitter, the social networking site. Nestlé has an abysmal image in cyberspace and is trying to improve this. As debate rages over whether bloggers should attend the Conference and what they can do there to support the campaign if they do, some thoughts come to my mind, which I will share here. It is very welcome to see people taking a stand, but the fact that Nestlé is contributing to the unnecessary death and suffering of babies around the world is an uncomfortable fact to face if you are someone who loves a particular product or want to accept its largesse. Accordingly, facing the facts is generally avoided in the arguments for not taking a stand.

Nestle held a Forum in London today 27 May - broadcast on the internet - about its Creating Shared Value strategy. Nestle portrays itself as a model of ethical behaviour, driven by its values. Yet the claims it makes and reports it produces are very misleading. Baby Milk Action's questions were not posted to the discussion board - read them here.

Greenpeace is reporting that Nestlé has agreed to all of its demands regarding its sourcing of palm oil from suppliers accused of destroying Indonesian rainforest to produce it. Nestlé had earlier resisted calls to change its policies and practices and received many thousands of messages and Greenpeace campaigners dropped in - literally - on its shareholder meeting in Switzerland last April. Now it is saying it will source palm oil from sustainable sources by 2015. This will require careful monitoring; when Nestlé was targeted over child slavery in its cocoa supply chain it promised in 2001 to ensure this had ended within 5 years, but has still not delivered. From our own success in holding Nestlé to account, we know that its Public Relations team will be swinging into action to portray this as 'Nestlé taking the lead' - ignoring the great efforts campaigners have had to go to and using its climb down to divert attention from other concerns about it awful management behaviour.

Nestlé is the most boycotted company in the UK over the way it pushes baby milk and it is desperate to change the situation. It is reportedly paying celebrities US$10,000 per tweet to say nice things about it on Twitter and is hiring a PR firm to try to improve its image in cyberspace. Today it is sponsoring the London Marathon and is supplying branded Nestlé Pure Life water to runners around the course. We have produced leaflets for runners and others to hand out to use this as an opportunity to show they do not support Nestlé and have produced a press release including the following quote.

We have a boycott list with the main Nestlé brands in the UK. I was just adding a note that Nestlé is in the process of selling its Alcon contact lens solutions business to Novartis. This is due to complete in mid-2010. In the process I remembered I needed to update the link to Nestlé own brands page. We link to it from our boycott list, but Nestlé keeps changing the address of the page in small ways so the link dies (for example, its been changed from Brands.htm to BrandHome.htm). Thank you to everyone who contacted me about the dead link.

You can find our list with the link to Nestlé's latest page at
http://info.babymilkaction.org/nestleboycottlist

The game of 'find the Nestlé's brand page' is not the only one Nestlé likes to play. A new one surfaced when I visited the Annabel Karmel Facebook page today. Unsurprising as it was recruiting PR experts to try to improve its abysmal image in cyberspace. See:
http://boycottnestle.blogspot.com/2010/02/nestle-launches-cyberwar.html 

A investigative television programme on Channel 4's Dispatches in the UK is reporting on how corporate lobbyists recruit politicians to gain access to Government Ministers and the Chairs of influential Parliamentary committees.

This is the text of a talk I gave to the La Leche League Ireland Conference on 7 March 2010. The accompanying PowerPoint presentation is attached (see link at the foot of the page).

Mr Tom Levitt, Member of Parliament for Buxton, has announced he is standing down at the next election.

Nestlé bottles Buxton water in the town and has befriended its MP with free tickets to the Wimbledon tennis tournament and a free trip to South Africa.

After the trip, Mr. Levitt praised Nestlé and suggested it should no longer be criticised for issues he said were 30 years in the past. In the Buxton Advertiser today, he is again quoted defending his friends at Nestlé:
http://www.buxtonadvertiser.co.uk/news/MP-Tom-denies-Nestle-job.6108297.jp