Beingmate
Score 2024
Score
Score
Important:
The research findings regarding companies’ performance in this Index are based on information shared by companies or gathered by service providers, in addition to information that is available in the public domain.
The level of detail and comprehensiveness of information shared by companies and gathered through external service providers varied. In the case of limited or no engagement by companies, this Index may not represent the full extent of their efforts. Similarly, in the case of limited data collected by service providers, the findings of this Index may not provide a comprehensive representation of company practices.
ATNI’s research and Indexes do not assess compliance with local regulations or laws, but rather assess private sector performance against international standards and guidance.
CF Country Studies
Score
The Country Studies component of the BMS and CF Marketing Indexes 2024 evaluates the extent to which a company’s marketing practices align with specific provisions of the WHO Code (not against local Code-related regulations). The main marketing channels assessed in the Country Studies for the BMS and CF Marketing Indexes 2024 are online points-of-sale, traditional and online media outlets, and product labels which were all assessed according to the NetCode protocol. Beingmate sells CF products only in China, one of the five countries selected for the assessment, which represents 100% of Beingmate’s estimated global CF sales. The Country Studies results for Beingmate are summarized below for China across each marketing channel.
Country Studies overview
| Beingmate | Country assessments | CF market | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total incidences of non-compliance across online, traditional media, and product labels | Number of product labels assessed | Company brands found | CF market share | Proportion of Beingmate's global CF sales | |
| CHINA | 12 | 8 | Beingmate, Jingai | 2% | 100% |
| GERMANY | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| INDONESIA | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| US | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| VIET NAM | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
(0 incidences of Code non-compliance corresponding to a country score of 100%)
(>0-10 incidences of Code non-compliance corresponding to a country score of 66%)
(>10-20 incidences of Code non-compliance corresponding to a country score of 33%)
(> 20 incidences of Code non-compliance corresponding to a country score of 0%)
Observed incidences of non-compliance with the Code per country
food < 6 months of age
food 6-36 months of age
Main in-country findings
The total number of non-compliant marketing practices for Beingmate CF products that were found in China was12.
The majority of incidences of non-compliant marketing practices observed for Beingmate were for inappropriate CF product labels (8). The remaining four incidences of non-compliance were found on online retailer platforms. No incidences of non-compliance were found on traditional media or other online media channels during the time of research.
While no commercial Beingmate complementary food product explicitly intended for infants below six months of age was found in China, four observations, including one product label, had no clear age range specified. The remaining commercial complementary foods found (8) during ATNI’s assessment were clearly marketed as suitable for older infants and young children between six months up to three years of age.
Online findings
• All the incidences of non-compliance found online (4), concerned point-of-sale promotions on online retail channels. Despite ATNI’s request for Beingmate to verify any contractual relationship with the retailers monitored, confirmation could not be obtained from the company. Promotions found on online retailer platforms had an average of three incidences of non-compliance per promotion found.
• All the advertisements were missing statements on the importance of exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of life and continued breastfeeding for up to two years or beyond. Further, all of the online advertisements found also included claims, where nutritional claims were found in all advertisements, followed by marketing (3) and health claims (2). Another key incidence of non-compliance was found with one of the online advertisements that had text that might suggest use for infants under the age of six months, by stating that for some children food can be given in advance but not before four months.
Traditional media findings
• No non-compliant observations were found in China for Beingmate's CF products promoted on traditional media in the six-month period the selected channels were monitored.
CF product label
• All the Beingmate CF product labels assessed in China contained at least one incidence of Code non-compliance, with an average of two incidences of non-compliance per product label assessed. All of the products were products intended for 6-36 months, except one product for which there was no clear age indicated.
• All Beingmate CF labels assessed had at least one type of claim (marketing, nutritional and health claim). None of the CF product labels with clear images included a statement on the importance of exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of life and continued breastfeeding for up to two years or beyond.
• It is worth noting that ATNI did not have the resources to collect products from the different markets and take pictures of its labels. For this assessment, ATNI used product label images from an external provider. For five products, images were not clear enough or did not show all parts of the package, in these cases ATNI asked the respective companies to provide images of the labels. Beingmate, however, did not provide images of product labels (as requested by ATNI) to help complete the assessments for all products. Therefore, an incomplete assessment remained for a total of five products. As these products were found to have non-compliance, the labels were counted as incidences of non-compliance.
Recommendations
• Given the incidences of non-compliant marketing practices for CF products observed, Beingmate is recommended to ensure that CF products are appropriately promoted in line with the 2016 WHO Guidance on ending the inappropriate promotion of foods for infants and young children supported by WHA resolution 69.9.
• The WHA 69.9 supported guidance includes recommendations around which messages should be present on CF labels to support optimal infant and young child feeding, and which are inappropriate and could undermine recommended practices. Beingmate should incorporate these recommendations in its policies and practices and apply them to all its CF products, as none of the CF products in this assessment fully met these requirements. The company should aim to address missing statements on exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of life and continued breastfeeding for up to two years or beyond.
• Beingmate is encouraged to consider the recommendations of the Code and WHA 69.9 supported guidance to appropriately advertise and promote CF products and brands intended for older infants and young children between six months and three years of age on all forms of media platforms globally.
• Beingmate is encouraged to engage with its industry associations, retailers and/or regulators to ensure that there are no promotions of BMS products in the retail environment, and see that products are appropriately marketed in line with the Code.
• Beingmate is strongly encouraged to cooperate fully with any future independent third-party assessments by providing clear and comprehensive product label images. Incomplete assessments can lead to inaccurate evaluations and hinder efforts to address incidences of non-compliance effectively.
• ATNI is calling on Beingmate to review all incidences of non-compliance identified across all marketing channels, which were shared in detail with the company, and to take corrective action in each of the markets.
CF Corporate Profile
Score
The Corporate Profile component of the BMS and CF Marketing Indexes 2024 evaluates the extent to which a company’s policies align with various provisions of the Code, the effectiveness of its related management systems as well as the company’s level of disclosure on commitments relating to CF marketing. Beingmate’s CF marketing commitments were assessed across nine topics that cover different aspects of the Code yielding an average score that is equivalent to the company’s initial overall Corporate Profile score before a geographic penalty (if applicable) is applied. A company that is found to market CF for infants under six months of age only gets half of the initial overall Corporate Profile score (this is identified by one of the indicators in the first topic on “Guiding Principles of Infant and Young Child Feeding”). As described in the findings on the topic “Guiding Principles of Infant and Young Child Feeding” below, Beingmate was found to market CF products for infants under six months of age, therefore its initial overall Corporate Profile score was halved from 3.5% to 1.8%. The final Corporate Profile score considers how the company’s marketing commitments are applied across different markets for CF products intended for older infants and young children between six months and three years of age (CF 6-36 months). The next section ‘Geographic application of CF commitments by product type’ shows how the company’s application of commitments for CF 6-36 months was evaluated. The scores and findings on each topic are described in further detail in the section below on ‘CF Commitments by Topic’.
Geographic application by Beingmate of CF commitments by product type
The percentage of product sales where commitments are upheld, and the geographic penalty applied to CF products intended for older infants and young children aged six months up to three years. The penalty ranges from 0% up to 90% depending on whether a company fully upholds its CF marketing commitments in all or none of the countries in which it operates, respectively, where national Code regulations are absent or less stringent than the company’s policies and standards.
|
Corporate Profile score before penalty |
Product type |
Percentage of Beingmate’s global sales from markets where CF commitments are upheld |
Geographic penalty applied |
Final Corporate Profile score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.8% |
Commercial complementary foods 6-36 months |
0% | 90% | 0.2% |
Commercial Complementary Foods
• No information was found in the public domain nor shared by the company describing if and where (in what markets) marketing commitments are upheld for CF 6-36 products. Therefore, the corresponding geographic penalty is the maximum of 90% and the final Corporate Profile score is 0.2%.
• ATNI calls on Beingmate to consider the expanded definition of the Code, following the World Health Assembly resolution 69.9 recommendations that cover and address the responsible marketing of commercially produced complementary foods intended for older infants and young children aged 6–36 months.
Topics Overview
CF commitments by topic
Most topics include both policy commitments and management systems except for ‘Guiding principles of infant and young child feeding’ which only considers policy commitments, ‘Implementation and Monitoring’ which only considers management systems, and ‘Disclosure’ which only considers the level of disclosure of identified commitments. ‘Lobbying and Policy Influence’ is the only topic that includes policy commitments, management systems and disclosure.