Nestlé and Infant Formula
At Nestlé, we firmly believe that breast–feeding is the best way to feed a baby and we are strongly committed to the protection and promotion of breast–feeding. When mothers cannot, or choose not to, breast–feed, infant formula is the only product recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a suitable alternative.
Nestlé universally follows all countries’ implementation of the WHO code. In developed countries Nestlé follows national regulations/laws implementing the WHO Code. Further, in all developing countries Nestlé voluntarily adopts the WHO Code as a minimum standard. Should there be national legislation in place that is stricter than the WHO Code, we follow that country’s national legislation.
In order to make sure these policies are enforced, we:
- Have a detailed WHO Code Management System implemented in developing countries
- Have an internal ombudsman system allowing any Nestlé employee to raise concerns about Code compliance in a confidential way.
- Conduct systematic internal audits at a significant level reporting of every Code violation to the CEO of the company
- Investigate in depth all allegations from campaign groups and make the results available to outsiders.
- Involve external auditing agencies in the monitoring of our Code compliance.