An influencer post promoting Sainsbury’s infant formula has been banned after violating the UK’s rules against marketing infant milk.

The supermarket giant was mentioned in influencer Kayleigh Johnson’s Instagram story, which included an affiliate link to an infant formula product on Sainsbury’s website.

The post featured a box with the question “Are you going to breastfeed? If not what formula will you use?”, accompanied by text about the influencer’s breastfeeding journey and an affiliate link titled “Formula we use” that linked to a product page on Sainsbury’s website for an infant formula milk powder.

The UK’s advertising regulatory body Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) emphasised that marketing for infant formula was prohibited under the UK Advertising Code and should not have been promoted by the influencer.

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The advert was also not clearly labelled as a marketing communication, which the ASA said meant it was not obvious to consumers that it was an ad and made the commercial intent unclear.

The ASA said the advert must not reappear and warned both Sainsbury’s and the influencer to clearly label future adverts.

Currently in the UK, infant formula is not allowed to be marketed in any form, including TV campaigns and advertising promotions.

Despite this, in August the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) warned that restrictions around the advertising of infant formula may be contributing to the current “historic high” prices.

Last year Iceland called for an immediate change to legislation restricting the promotion of price cuts on infant formula by retailers, which included a ban on infant formula from being purchased with loyalty points, store gift cards or food bank vouchers.