Phillip Baker

Biographic Data

ID3583362
NAMEPhillip Baker
GIVEN NAMESPhillip
FAMILY NAMEBaker
SIGNATUREBAKER P
AFFILIATIONSDeakin University
ORCID0000-0002-0802-2349
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS64
TOTAL CITATIONS18
AUTHOR COUNT64
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1974
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX2

  • Ultra-Processed Food ‘Fetishism’ is Undermining Efforts Seeking Healthy, Equitable, and Sustainable Diets Globally

    Open AccessBenjamin Wood, Benjamin D K Wood et al.ARTICLEFood Ethics2026

    Calls have been growing for government interventions to address diets high in ultra-processed foods (i.e., ultra-processed diets), which are associated with a large and rising burden of preventable death and disease. To date, however, government action relating to ultra-processed foods (UPFs) has been mostly insufficient. In this paper, we argue that one of the key reasons behind this lacklustre response has been the dominance of ‘UPF fetishism’ …

  • How has the global food governance system evolved, and what challenges does it currently pose for food systems transformation? A narrative review and synthesis of the literature

    Open AccessScott Slater, Mark Lawrence et al.ARTICLEGlobalization and Health2026

    BACKGROUND: Transformative change in the global food governance (GFG) system is essential to address the interlinked crises of non-communicable diseases, social inequities, and environmental degradation that collectively undermine global health and sustainable development. However, this transformation agenda raises important questions regarding how powerful actors and interests, entrenched institutions and institutional legacies, and dominant ide…

  • Global market trends and financial performance of the corporate fast-food industry and their potential contributions to diets high in meat and ultra-processed foods

    Open AccessKatherine Sievert, Tanita Botha et al.ARTICLEGlobalization and Health2025

    BACKGROUND: The fast-food industry has transformed substantially in recent decades - from diverse, locally rooted providers into a globalised, and increasingly corporate-led industry. Corporate fast-food retailers (FFRs) represent a key retail channel through which both ultra-processed foods and intensively produced animal source foods are consumed and normalised within corporate-industrial food systems. These dietary patterns are strongly associ…

  • Generating political priority for breastfeeding and the adoption of Kenya’s 2012 BMS act

    Open AccessMaryanne Wamahiu, Phillip Baker et al.ARTICLEGlobalization and Health2025

    BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization recommends initiating breastfeeding in the first hour of life, exclusive breastfeeding for six months, and continued breastfeeding for at least two years. Aggressive marketing of breast milk substitutes (BMS) undermines breastfeeding and is linked to adverse child and maternal health outcomes. This is particularly problematic in the Global South, where socioeconomic conditions often amplify the risks asso…

  • Profits Before Health? New Zealand Government Rejection of Stricter Infant Formula Marketing Standards and the Lobbying Behind It

    Open AccessNaomi Hull, Alison Bradley et al.ARTICLEMaternal and Child Nutrition2025

    In 2024, the New Zealand (NZ) government made a rare departure from the joint food standards programme with Australia, administered by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ). This paper presents a timely case study of how transnational dairy and baby food corporations lobbied the NZ government to reject updated infant formula standards, despite strong evidence and support across Australia for reform. Globally, transnational corporations dom…

  • The role of policy actors’ belief systems and interests in framing public health nutrition problems

    Open AccessPatricia Ribeiro De Melo, Phillip Baker et al.ARTICLEPublic Health Nutrition2025

    Objective: This study investigated how the belief systems and interests of policy actors shaped their framing of the causes and solutions to obesity and how this influenced policy recommendations. Design: Submissions to the Select Committee on Obesity Epidemic in Australia (SCOEA) were collected, and actors were classified according to their interests in commercial and non-commercial groups. A framework grounded in social constructionism was used…

  • A quantitative environmental impact assessment of Australian ultra-processed beverages and impact reduction scenarios

    Open AccessKim Anastasiou, Michalis Hadjikakou et al.ARTICLEPublic Health Nutrition2025

    Objective: Ultra-processed beverages (UPB) have known adverse impacts on health, but their impact on the environment is not well understood across different environmental indicators. This study aimed to quantify the environmental impacts of water-based UPB and bottled waters sold in Australia and assess the impacts of various scenarios which may reduce such impacts in the future. Design: This study presents a quantitative environmental impact ass…

  • Ultra-processed food exposure and adverse health outcomes

    Open AccessMelissa M Lane, Elizabeth Gamage et al.ARTICLEBMJ2024

  • Corporate interest groups and their implications for global food governance

    Open AccessScott Slater, Mark Lawrence et al.ARTICLEGlobalization and Health2024

    BACKGROUND: A major challenge to transforming food systems to promote human health and sustainable development is the global rise in the manufacture and consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPFs). A key driver of this dietary transition is the globalization of UPF corporations, and their organized corporate political activity (CPA) intended to counter opposition and block government regulation. UPF industry CPA and the corporate interest groups …

  • Breastfeeding, first-food systems and corporate power

    Open AccessCindy Alejandra Pachón Robles, Mélissa Mialon et al.ARTICLEGlobalization and Health2024

    BACKGROUND: The exploitative marketing of commercial milk formula (CMF) reduces breastfeeding, and harms child and maternal health globally. Yet forty years after the International Code of Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes (The Code) was adopted by WHO member states, many countries are still to fully implement its provisions into national law. Furthermore, despite The Code, worldwide CMF markets have markedly expanded. In this paper, we adopt …

  • How power in corporate-industrial meat supply chains enables negative externalities

    Open AccessKatherine Sievert, Mark Lawrence et al.ARTICLEOne Earth2024

  • Violations of Vietnamese laws related to the online marketing of breastmilk substitutes

    Open AccessKathryn Backholer, Linh Nguyen et al.ARTICLEMaternal and Child Nutrition2024

    Breastfeeding rates in Vietnam, and globally, remain suboptimal. A major contributor to this is the aggressive marketing of commercial milk formulas (CMF), mainly through online media. The Vietnamese Government has implemented legal measures to limit CMF marketing, but these have been difficult to enforce, because of complex online environments. We aimed to quantify the extent and nature of online violations and contradictions in various Vietname…

  • An analysis of the transformative potential of Australia’s national food policies and policy actions to promote healthy and sustainable food systems

    Open AccessPatricia Ribeiro De Melo, Phillip Baker et al.ARTICLEPublic Health Nutrition2024

    Objective: Despite commitment by many countries to promote food system transformation, Australia has yet to adopt a national food policy. This study aimed to evaluate Australian Federal Government’s (AFG) food policies and policy actions potential to promote healthy and sustainable food systems. Design: This study is a desk-based policy mapping followed by a theoretically guided evaluation of policy actions. This involved three steps: (1) identif…

  • The rise of multi-stakeholderism, the power of ultra-processed food corporations, and the implications for global food governance

    Open AccessScott Slater, Mark Lawrence et al.ARTICLEAgriculture and Human Values2024References: 3

    The rise of multi-stakeholder institutions (MIs) involving the ultra-processed food (UPF) industry has raised concerns among food and public health scholars, especially with regards to enhancing the legitimacy and influence of transnational food corporations in global food governance (GFG) spaces. However, few studies have investigated the governance composition and characteristics of MIs involving the UPF industry, nor considered the implication…

  • Marketing of commercial milk formula

    Open AccessNigel Rollins, Ellen Piwoz et al.ARTICLEThe Lancet2023

    Despite proven benefits, less than half of infants and young children globally are breastfed in accordance with the recommendations of WHO. In comparison, commercial milk formula (CMF) sales have increased to about US$55 billion annually, with more infants and young children receiving formula products than ever. This Series paper describes the CMF marketing playbook and its influence on families, health professionals, science, and policy processe…

  • Breastfeeding

    Open AccessRafael Pérez-Escamilla, Cecilia Tomori et al.ARTICLEThe Lancet2023

    In this Series paper, we examine how mother and baby attributes at the individual level interact with breastfeeding determinants at other levels, how these interactions drive breastfeeding outcomes, and what policies and interventions are necessary to achieve optimal breastfeeding. About one in three neonates in low-income and middle-income countries receive prelacteal feeds, and only one in two neonates are put to the breast within the first hou…

  • Non-nutritive sweetener regulation and health

    Open AccessCherie Russell, Phillip Baker et al.ARTICLEHealth Promotion International2023

    We aimed to understand the process of setting or varying food standards related to non-nutritive sweeteners (NNS) in Australia and New Zealand. Overconsumption of added sugars is a risk factor for non-communicable diseases. Limiting added sugar consumption is recommended by the World Health Organization. NNS are sweet substances with little to no energy that can be used to maintain the sweetness of packaged food when added sugar is reduced. The h…

  • Understanding the corporate political activity of the ultra - processed food industry in East Asia

    Open AccessOliver Huse, Erica Reeve et al.ARTICLEGlobalization and Health2023

    BACKGROUND: Evidence is mounting that the ultra - processed food industry seeks to influence food and nutrition policies in ways that support market growth and protect against regulatory threats, often at the expense of public health. However, few studies have explored how this occurs in lower - middle income countries. We aimed to explore if and how the ultra - processed food industry seeks to influence food- and nutrition - related policy proce…

  • Regulating the marketing of foods for infants and young children

    Open AccessNisachol Cetthakrikul, Cathy Banwell et al.ARTICLEMaternal and Child Nutrition2023

    Breast milk substitute (BMS) marketing harms breastfeeding and public health. To control BMS marketing, the Member States of the World Health Organization is called upon to adopt all provisions of the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes (the Code) into national law. In 2017, Thailand adopted many provisions of the Code through the Control of Marketing Promotion of Infant and Young Child Food Act B.E. 2560 (the Act), includin…

  • Global trends in added sugars and non-nutritive sweetener use in the packaged food supply

    Open AccessCherie Russell, Phillip Baker et al.ARTICLEPublic Health Nutrition2023

    Objective: The health implications of excessive added sugar intakes have led to national policy actions to limit their consumption. Subsequently, non-nutritive sweeteners (NNS) may be used to maintain product sweetness. We aimed to assess trends in quantities of added sugars and NNS sold in packaged food and beverages worldwide, and the association between these trends and the number of national policy actions across regions to reduce added sugar…

  • Ecological regulation for healthy and sustainable food systems

    Open AccessTanita Northcott, Mark Lawrence et al.ARTICLEAgriculture and Human Values2023Cited by: 2References: 9

    Many are calling for transformative food systems changes to promote population and planetary health. Yet there is a lack of research that considers whether current food policy frameworks and regulatory approaches are suited to tackle whole of food systems challenges. One such challenge is responding to the rise of ultra-processed foods (UPF) in human diets, and the related harms to population and planetary health. This paper presents a narrative …

  • Conflicts of interest are harming maternal and child health

    Open AccessCatherine Pereira‐Kotze, Bill Jeffery et al.ARTICLEBMJ Global Health2022

    The promotion and support of breastfeeding \nglobally is thwarted by the USD $57 billion \n(and growing) formula industry that engages \nin overt and covert advertising and promotion \nas well as extensive political activity to foster \npolicy environments conducive to market \ngrowth.1 \n This includes health professional \nfinancing and engagement through courses, \ne-learning platforms, sponsorship of conferences and health professional associ…

  • Questioning the ethics of international research on formula milk supplementation in low-income African countries

    Open AccessTanya Doherty, Ingunn Marie Stadskleiv Engebretsen et al.ARTICLEBMJ Global Health2022

    Questioning the ethics of international research on formula milk supplementation in low-income African countries: response

  • Strategies used by the soft drink industry to grow and sustain sales

    Open AccessOliver Huse, Erica Reeve et al.ARTICLEBMJ Global Health2022

    BACKGROUND: The market and non-market activities of the food and beverage industry contribute to unhealthy and unsustainable dietary patterns, increasingly in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). We aimed to describe how The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC), as the world market leader in the sugar-sweetened beverage sector, operationalises their activities in LMICs in East Asia, among the world's most highly populated yet under-researched coun…

  • Questioning the ethics of international research on formula milk supplementation in low-income African countries

    Open AccessTanya Doherty, Ingunn Marie Stadskleiv Engebretsen et al.ARTICLEBMJ Global Health2022

    Over the past three decades, the increase \nin funding for priority public health issues \nlargely affecting low/middle-income countries (LMICs) has led to the growth in international research involving researchers \nor research sponsors from a high-income \ncountry (HIC) conducting research in \nLMICs. The ethical considerations in such \ninternational research were raised in the \n1990s and several ethical guidelines specifically addressing int…