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© History Oasis / Created via Midjourney
Henri Nestlé’s formula contributed to a measurable decline in infant mortality across Europe.
Swiss Canton of Vaud records show infant death rates dropped from 23% to 15% during this period.
He received over 1,200 letters from mothers crediting his invention with their children’s survival.
This is Henri Nestlé’s amazing life story and how his invention saved countless lives.
1814-1833
Heinrich Nestlé was born on August 10, 1814, in Frankfurt, Germany, the year that Napoleon was exiled to Elba.
He was the eleventh of fourteen children in a glazier’s family.
The Nestlé family’s Protestant faith faced restrictions in Catholic-dominated Frankfurt, influencing young Heinrich to leave the country later.
His formal education ended at age fifteen.
Poverty forced him into a pharmacy apprenticeship under Gustav Ferdinand Keppel in Frankfurt’s Hirschgraben district.
1833-1839
Heinrich fled Germany’s political turmoil at nineteen during the failed Frankfurt Wachensturm uprising of April 3, 1833.
He immigrated to Vevey, Switzerland.
He then Francophone-ized his name to Henri Nestlé (meaning “little nest” in Swabian German).
In these early years, he worked for pharmacists Marc Nicollier and François-Louis Cailler (the father of chocolate pioneer Daniel Peter’s wife).
Under their guidance, he learned chemistry and food preservation, which gave him the insights for his future inventions.
1867
On September 1, 1867, Nestlé saved his first infant patient—a premature baby named Wanner who couldn’t digest mother’s milk.
He formulated his first baby’s formula called “Farine Lactée.”
The formula combined cow’s milk, wheat flour, and sugar—created to mimic breast milk’s digestibility.
Doctors Jules Monnerat and Paul-Louis Bron documented the formula’s success with fifteen other infants in Vevey Hospital within weeks.
The invention couldn’t have come at a better time.
Europe’s industrial revolution had separated many mothers from their nursing schedules.
Baby’s formula or surrogate mother’s milk were the only ways to save these newborns.
1868-1873
By 1868, Nestlé’s formula was sold in five countries.
Henri partnered with Frankfurt banker Adolf Stoessel to provide capital and distribution networks.
Even Princess Natalia Dolgorukova used the formula for her son with Tsar Alexander II of Russia.
Sales of the formula skyrocketed.
Reaching 500,000 boxes annually by 1873.
Nestlé opened factories in London, Paris, and Frankfurt, with Nestlé personally overseeing quality control.
Each batch had to undergo intense chemical analysis.
1875
Daniel Peter invented milk chocolate in 1875-1876, using Henri Nestlé’s condensed milk formula as a key ingredient.
Peter was Henri Nestlé’s neighbor in Vevey and had married into the Cailler chocolate family (Fanny Louise Cailler).
1875
On March 18, 1875, Henri Nestlé sold his company to Jules Monnerat, Pierre-Samuel Roussy, and Gustave Marquis for one million Swiss francs.
A ton of money for that time.
At sixty-one, childless and suffering from gout, Nestlé had no choice but to retire.
The buyers immediately expanded operations, acquiring competitor Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company within thirty years.
Nestlé retained no management role but watched his name grow globally until his death in Montreux on July 7, 1890.
