His Excellency Minister of Health, Mr. Fahd bin Abdul Rahman Al-Jalajel, approved decisions to impose two penalties on a company during the first half of the current year 2023 for violating the rules for trading breast milk substitutes.
MOH clarified that the Committee for Reviewing Violations of Breast Milk Substitutes Law and its Implementing Regulations, whose members are from the Ministries of Health, Commerce and Justice, approved these penalties. Where several violations of the law of trading breast-milk substitutes were detected, and these two decisions were issued for these violations with financial fines amounting to SR. 250,000; The violations consisted of representatives of the Breast Milk Substitutes Company entering hospitals and distributing brochures about breast milk substitutes in the Eastern Province. This is a violation of Article 5 of the law, which stipulates the prohibition of advertising and promotion in any way for breast milk substitutes and infant food.
It is noteworthy that the law for trading breast milk substitutes in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was issued by a royal decree in 2004, and its executive regulations were updated by the decision of the Minister of Health in 2019; This is in compliance with the implementation of the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes, which the Kingdom signed in 1981.
The Ministry stated that these decisions and penalties were issued due to the importance of applying the rules and monitoring the performance of the regulations and laws, which promote and protect the health of community members, especially infants, and provide them with proper nutrition through breastfeeding and appropriate complementary feeding, and not giving the opportunity to violate the regulations, whether from government, private institutions or companies, or individuals working in health institutions or private companies supplying or distributing breast milk substitutes, and among these rules is the breast milk substitute circulation law, which aims to provide safe and appropriate nutrition for infants by protecting breastfeeding and ensuring the correct use of breast milk substitutes in case of need and approved by the doctor.