Breast-milk substitute

Any food being marketed or otherwise represented as a partial or total replacement for breast-milk, whether or not suitable for that purpose.

Code monitoring bodies

The WHO Code recommends that national governments set up Code monitoring bodies to monitor the implementation of the Code in their countries. Different countries have different rules for who should be included on such bodies and what their remit is. Many countries have no monitoring procedure in place.

Codex Alimentarius Committee

The United Nations committee that sets standards in foods.

Complementary food

Any food, whether manufactured or locally prepared, suitable as a complement to breast-milk or to infant formula, when either becomes insufficient to satisfy the nutritional requirements of the infant. Such food is also commonly called "breast-milk supplement", and was traditionally called "weaning food".

Free samples

Single or small quantities of a product provided free of charge.

Infant formula

A breast-milk substitute formulated industrially in accordance with applicable Codex Alimentarius standards, to satisfy the normal nutritional requirements of infants up to and between four and six months of age, and adapted to their physiological characteristics.

Marketing

Product promotion, distribution, selling, advertising, product public relations and information services.

Nestlé Instructions

The internal instructions that Nestlé formulated to ensure that the WHO Code was implemented in the developing world even where governments had not translated the recommendations in to national law.

Supplies

Quantities of a product provided for use over an extended period, free or at low price, for social purposes, including those provided to families in need.

WHA

The World Health Assembly convenes every year to discuss and decide on major matters of policy in relation to the work of the WHO.

WHO

The World Health Organisation is a specialised agency of the United Nations with primary responsibility for international health matters and public health. It fulfils its remit through enhancing co-operation between its Member States and by issuing recommendations on health policy.

WHO Code (or "the Code" or "International Code")

The WHO published the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes after the World Health Assembly approved it in 1981. It is a recommendation to member Governments on how breast-milk substitutes should be marketed. The Aim of the Code, as stated in Article 1, is "to contribute to the provision of safe and adequate nutrition for infants, by the protection and promotion of breastfeeding, and by ensuring the proper use of breast-milk substitutes, when these are necessary, on the basis of adequate information and through appropriate marketing and distribution."