The role of the manufacturing food industry in relation to provision of foods for the weanling encompasses 4 main objectives viz. customer satisfaction, safety, providing product information and the maintenance of commercial viability. The effectiveness of the manufacturing food industry to fulfil these roles is judged by the customer wishing to buy for quality and convenience reasons, by the law of the land in meeting legal requirements for safety and labelling and by its generation of profit in terms of commercial viability. Whereas it is commonly expected that industry should fulfil a role in nutrition education this is seen as a primary role of health professionals whilst industry needs to provide full and detailed product information. The industry is highly creative in both its technological innovation and adaptation and works hard at trying to satisfy the requirements of consumers, the industry, health professionals and its critics.