Nutritional Sovereignty and the Commercial Determinants of Child Health: A Developmental Bioethical Analysis

Abstract Bioethics has extensively examined autonomy, consent, and beneficence, but less attention has been paid to the legitimacy of commercial authority over the conditions shaping children's nutritional development. This article develops Nutritional Sovereignty as a normative framework that brings commercial determinants research, capability theory, and children's rights into a common assessment of that authority. It argues that commercial arrangements must be evaluated in terms of their effects on present nutritional outcomes and choices, as well as their capacity to preserve the material, informational, and social conditions through which children develop, exercise, and revise meaningful nutritional capabilities. The framework distinguishes three judgments. These are: scrutiny where credible concerns about developmental significance arise; proportionate preventive intervention where potential restrictions warrant action; and developmental nutritional injustice where a materially significant restriction is credibly attributable to an arrangement and inadequately justified. The 2025 Public Eye and International Baby Food Action Network investigation of Nestlé's infant cereals illustrates the framework's application to reported differences in product formulation and disclosure. The analysis distinguishes grounds for scrutiny from evidence of lasting developmental harm or injustice. It concludes by identifying proportionate responsibilities for corporations, regulators, health professionals, and researchers.