Africa 
China 
Japan 
MENA 
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The Infant Food Industry as a Partner in Health
Published in Frank Falkner, Infant and Child Nutrition Worldwide:, 2021
In October of 1979 WHO and The United Nations International Childrens Emergency Fund (UNICEF) convened a meeting to help find a solution. The meeting entitled, “Infant and Young Child Feeding” took place in Geneva. The present writer chaired the meeting which brought together about 150 people representing governments, industry, scientists and the consumer’s organizations or activists. This was the first time that under an international organization, at any rate the WHO, that such diverse groups had been brought together as equals to discuss a major problem. Everybody at the meeting had the same status. After the issues were debated in plenary sessions, there were discussions in four working groups. As can be imagined, the group that dealt with industry’s sales practices had the most serious problems. The question of withholding information to an individual or group because they were judged incapable of using such information correctly was an ethical issue to which no answer was found. The meeting did its work reasonably well and recommended the drawing up of a code of marketing for breast milk substitutes. This recommendation was adopted, and in May 1981 after a great deal of discussion and negotiation, the WHO International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes was finally presented for approval to all member governments of the WHO. In the end, approval was nearly unanimous, with the United States the only country casting a negative vote. The interested reader should study the code. (WHO, 1981,b)
Midwifery – an evolutionary tale
Published in Helen Baston, Midwifery, 2020
Over the past century, however, breastfeeding rates have declined from 90 per cent at the turn of the century, to 46.2 per cent at 6–8 weeks in 2018–19 (NHS Digital 2019). The proliferation of formula milk products and aggressive company marketing has sought to undermine women’s confidence in the quality and accessibility of their milk. Despite the publication of the ‘International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes’ (WHO 1981) the formula companies have found ways and means of promoting their ‘follow-on’ milks or ‘specialist infant formulas’ to meet and treat spurious needs.
Mothers, milk and money
Published in Théodore H MacDonald, Health, Trade and Human Rights, 2018
But, breast milk has to compete in a rapidly growing market for breast milk substitutes, now worth US $10.9 billion (Gaudrin, 2001). The International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes (WHO, 1981) and its resolutions, and other policies which attempt to protect breastfeeding and ensure responsible marketing of breast milk substitutes, challenge such growth and are opposed by companies. Nestlé controls approximately 40% of the baby food market, and, as the world’s largest food company (with over 11 000 brands of processed foods), is able to exert a powerful influence on government policies and market trends. For more than two decades Nestlé has been dogged by criticism of its baby food marketing and is the target of an international boycott campaign. Because of this Nestlé has curbed some of its more blatant malpractices, removing pictures of babies on infant formula tins and stopping some media advertising. It has also spent millions of dollars on public relations strategies which include sponsorship, glossy brochures and attempts to link its name with and to influence the UN system. Nestlé’s sustainability review, its infant feeding in the developing world and its infant feeding policy are all examples which present Nestlé as a responsible company, even a leader in sustainable development and environmental protection – a company that is eager to listen to criticism and to act on it. But all these documents fail to stand up to scrutiny. In reality there has been no real change of policy nor any commitment to a marketing strategy that will match the public relations promises.
Infant and Young Child Feeding Policy: do primary health care nurses adhere to the HIV breastfeeding recommendations in Limpopo province?
Published in South African Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2019
With new evidence on HIV and IYCF emerging, the National Department of Health9 issued the Tshwane Declaration on Support for Breastfeeding in South Africa (SA) in 2011. Among other things, the declaration stated that the issuing of free formula at public health facilities according to the IYCF policy of 2007 would be phased out. The declaration also called for the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes to be legislated. This led to the promulgation of regulations relating to foodstuffs for infants and young children (Regulation 991),10 which includes the legislation of the Code in South Africa and prohibits marketing of breast milk substitutes in health facilities.