NESTL ROWNTREE'S York factory is to be targeted during a day of nationwide protest by campaigners who oppose the company's active promotion of baby milk in developing countries.

Demonstrations are planned at Nestl sites across the UK by members of Baby Milk Action, a group that lobbies for ethical trading of baby foods.

Dozens of protesters are expected to meet outside the Swiss company's Wigginton Road factory between 11am and noon on Saturday.

Participants will bang drums and clash cymbals every 30 seconds to mark the deaths of babies across the world who are not fed breast milk.

Mike Brady, of Baby Milk Action, claimed Nestl has breached a World Health Assembly code on the marketing of breast milk substitutes.

He said: "We are not asking Nestl to stop selling baby foods. We, like UNICEF and others, are asking it to bring its policies and practices into line with the marketing requirements set out by the World Health Assembly."

He said: "The demonstrations are not aimed at Nestl employees. They are aimed at Nestl executives."

A spokeswoman for Nestl said the company firmly believed that breast-feeding was the best way to feed a baby, and was strongly committed to the protection and promotion of breast-feeding.

She said: "Indeed we are one of the world's largest distributors of educational material supporting exclusive breast-feeding."

The spokeswoman said there was a lot of misunderstanding about how Nestl sold infant formula products in the developing world and the company had changed its practices to reflect concerns.

She said: "The simple truth is that many women in the developing world both breast-feed and give their babies other foods."

Updated: 10:42 Wednesday, May 07, 2003