HiPP
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. HiPP sells CF products in three (China, Germany and Viet Nam) of the five countries selected for the assessment which altogether represent almost 52% of HiPP’s estimated global CF sales. The Country Studies results for HiPP are summarized below for each country and across each marketing channel.
Country Studies overview
| HiPP | 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 HiPP's global CF sales | |
| CHINA | 28 | 2 | HiPP | <5% | 8% |
| GERMANY | 55 | 37 | HiPP | 44% | 40% |
| INDONESIA | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| US | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| VIET NAM | 7 | 3 | HiPP | 10% | 4% |
(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%)
• In China, where HiPP’s CF sales represent 8% of the company’s global CF sales and it has a relatively small share in the Chinese CF market (<5%), a total of 28 incidences of non-compliance were identified which included 26 non-compliant advertisements or promotions on online media channels and both product labels assessed contained one or more instances of non-compliance.
• The highest number of incidences of non-compliance were found in Germany (55), where HiPP has a high share of the German CF market (~44%) and which represents approximately 40% of the company’s total global CF sales. Of these observations, a total of 16 non-compliant advertisements and promotions related to CF brands were found online during the research period, and all 37 product labels assessed contained one or more instances of non-compliance.
• A significantly lower number of incidences of non-compliance (7) were found for HiPP in the Viet Nam, which is not a major market for the company, while the company possesses a reasonable share of the Vietnamese CF market (~10%): four non-compliant advertisements and promotions related to CF brands were found online during the research period, and all three product labels assessed contained one of more instances of non-compliance.
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 highest number of incidences of non-compliant marketing practices for HiPP were found in Germany (55), followed by China (28), and Viet Nam (7).
Across all country assessments, the majority of incidences of non-compliance observed (46) for HiPP were identified through the social listening of online platforms. A high incidence of non-compliance was also identified in product labels (42). On traditional media, only two incidences of non-compliance were found in Germany.
In addition, 16 commercial complementary foods explicitly intended for infants below six months of age were found for HiPP in this assessment, the majority were found in Germany (13) and the other three in Viet Nam. Sixteen products had no clear age range or included a brand promotion, and the other commercial complementary foods found (58) 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
• Among the total incidences of non-compliance found online (46), only six were non-compliant point-of-sale promotions found on online retailer channels in China. All these point-of-sale promotions contained one or several claims (nutritional, health and/ or marketing claims) and none 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. Despite ATNI's request for HiPP to verify any contractual relationship with the retailers monitored, confirmation could not be obtained from the company. There were no observations of CF identified among the online retailer channels monitored in the other markets assessed.
• The remaining 40 non-compliant observations were found on the company’s local social media platforms, with the highest number of findings in the China (20, on Weibo), followed by Germany (16 on Facebook and Instagram) and Viet Nam (four on Facebook).
• In total four products (two in Germany and two in Viet Nam) were found to be marketed online as suitable for infants under six months of age. The Code recommends the introduction of CF products no earlier than six months of age to protect exclusive breastfeeding in this period. As those products should not be available on the market, they were counted as non-compliances and not assessed on any further indicators that evaluate appropriate marketing practices. Therefore, the following results are for CF 6-36 months and those showing a brand related to the product.
• Across the three countries where online adverts of HiPP’s CF products were found, an average of two to three incidences of non-compliance were identified with each observation. All the adverts found online across the three countries were missing the statement on the importance of exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of life and continued breastfeeding for up to two years or beyond. In China and Viet Nam, around half of HiPP’s CF products found promoted online had a clear recommended age of introduction whereas in Germany, the recommended age was clearly indicated for almost all advertisements.
• Other incidences of non-compliance found with the advertisements in China, included an image, text, or other representation that may suggest that the product is inherently superior to home-prepared foods (seven out of 20). Another incidence of non-compliance found in the Germany was a text that may discourage or undermine breastfeeding, in this case, the message indicated a recommendation to breastfeed or use HiPP formula until four months.
• The majority of the online advertisements found also included claims, and the most common type was nutritional claim in China, and for Germany and Viet Nam, marketing claims.
Traditional media findings
• In total, two advertisements of HiPP CF brand were found on television during the six-month monitoring period of selected channels across all three countries. Both advertisements were found during the monitoring in Germany, and both had an average of three incidences of non-compliance with the Code. The two TV advertisements had claims (health, nutritional and marketing claims) and there was no clear recommended age of introducing the CF products, nor 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.
CF product label
• A total of 42 of HiPP’s CF product labels were assessed across the three markets, 37 of which were in Germany.
• In total 12 product labels (11 in Germany and one in Viet Nam) were found to be marketed as suitable for infants under six months of age. As those products should not be available on the market as per WHO recommendations, they were counted as non-compliances and not assessed on any further indicators that evaluate appropriate marketing practices. Therefore, the following results are for CF 6-36 months and those showing a brand related to the product.
• For all HiPP product labels assessed, at least two incidents of Code non-compliance were observed. The average number of incidences of non-compliance per product label per market ranged from two in China and Germany to three in Viet Nam.
• Across the three markets, all HiPP’s CF labels assessed had at least one type of claim All the CF products assessed for HiPP, did not include 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. Other incidences of non-compliance were found on product labels from Germany and Viet Nam as some products (six in Germany and two in Viet Nam) included an image, text, or other representation that may suggest that the product is inherently superior to home-prepared foods. Both products in Viet Nam did not have all labeling in the appropriate language used locally, therefore not committing to the Code recommendations for CF to be in the local language of the consumers to ensure awareness of the product and its appropriate use.
• It is worth noting that ATNI did not have the resources to collect products from the different markets and take pictures of their labels. For this assessment, ATNI used product label images from an external provider. For some products, images provided 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. While HiPP directed ATNI to specific sections on its German website where product label images could be found, the company did not provide additional images of products sold in China. Therefore, a small number of products were assessed in China compared to the other two countries.
Recommendations
• Commercial complementary foods explicitly intended for infants below six months of age were found for HiPP in Germany and Viet Nam in this assessment, which is against WHO recommendations as these products are considered unwanted breast-milk substitutes since they interfere with exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months. HiPP is urged to stop producing and selling commercial CF for infants under six months of age in line with global public health recommendations.
• Given the incidences of non-compliant marketing practices for CF products observed, HiPP is encouraged to consider the gaps identified to improve its CF marketing practices globally such that they fully align with the requirements of the Code. 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. HiPP should incorporate these recommendations in its policies and practices and apply them to it CF products, as none of the CF products in this assessment fully met these requirements. Examples of aspects that the company can improve across all platforms include restricting the use of all types of claims as defined by WHO Europe’s Nutrient and Promotion Profile Model for all forms of CF marketing. HPP is also encouraged to include statements on exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of life and continued breastfeeding for up to two years or beyond.
• A key issue was found across the three countries where 16 of the observations (all advertisements and most labels) were of CF products that had no clear recommended age of introduction specified. The company should be transparent and include the age indication in advertisements and labeling.
• HiPP is strongly encouraged to take responsibility for monitoring its marketing practices beyond local regulations, according to the principles and the aim of the Code and subsequent relevant resolutions, and to take steps to ensure this includes online media channels, especially in China and Germany where more incidences were found.
• ATNI is calling on HiPP 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. HiPP’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, HiPP was found to market CF products for infants under six months of age, therefore its initial overall Corporate Profile score was halved from 13% to 7%. 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 up to 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 HiPP 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 HiPP’s global sales from markets where CF commitments are upheld |
Geographic penalty applied |
Final Corporate Profile score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6.5% |
Commercial complementary foods 6-36 months |
0% | 90% | 0.7% |
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 0.6%.
• ATNI calls on HiPP 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.