The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday caved in to mounting criticism of a ban it recently announced on all advertising and promotional sales of infant formula and announced it would postpone the prohibition of the “open-on-the-spot discount” (開罐價) scheme.
Under the promotion — aimed at keeping baby formula fresh by preventing stockpiling — if consumers open the product immediately after purchasing it, the store gives them a discount.
FDA Interim Director-General Chiang Yu-mei (姜郁美) made the unexpected decision after the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee passed an impromptu motion urging the agency to postpone the ban at a meeting yesterday morning held to deliberate the feasibility, suitability and potential impacts of the ban.
“The reason the FDA decided to forbid the scheme in the first place is because [the quality of] powdered baby formula could be in question after it is exposed to air,” Chiang said.
However, Chiang said except for the scheme, which is to be subject to further deliberation and evaluation, the ban on other common promotion methods for infant formula, such as coupons and giveaways, are to come into force as scheduled.
The ban, which is set to take effect on Jan.1, prohibits producers and vendors of baby formula designed for infants less than a year old from running advertisements and offering any discounts to boost sales.
It has sparked an outpouring of public criticism, mainly because the ban also forbids pharmacies and stores from offering an open-on-the-spot discount on powdered baby formula to customers, a common sales scheme that can see a NT$50 to NT$150 reduction in price.
During the meeting, lawmakers across party lines cast doubt on the FDA’s prohibition of the “open-on-the-spot” price scheme.
“The discount scheme has been in place for years and it saves parents as much as N$3,600 to NT$7,200 a year. Banning it would add further to their financial burden and is too much an interference in people’s lives,” Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Alicia Wang (王育敏), who initiated the motion, said at the meeting.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Chiech-ju (陳節如) said that while breastfeeding has many benefits, infant formula is nevertheless an indispensable product because many new mothers are not able to breastfeed because of the nature of their jobs or because it is otherwise inconvenient.
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