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Statement on Infant and young child nutrition: Quadrennial Report (A59/13)

The International Special Dietary Foods Industries (ISDI) thanks the Chair for this opportunity to address the distinguished members of the World Health Assembly. As one of the participants in the creation of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, infant food manufacturers recognize its 25th Anniversary as an important milestone.

The Infant food industry has repeatedly affirmed its support for the International Code and its desire to cooperate with Governments and the WHO in ensuring its effective implementation, country by country. It devotes considerable effort advocating for transparent monitoring and reporting procedures, as well as establishing monitoring agencies under government authority. ISDI is therefore pleased to note that an increasing number of governments are encouraging dialogue among concerned parties aimed at resolving problems of Code monitoring and implementation.

While the International Code is a recommendation to governments to be implemented according to their social and legislative frameworks, it also sets appropriate practices for those engaged in the manufacturing, commercialization and/or distribution of breast-milk substitutes. Over the past quarter century, infant food manufacturers have taken significant steps to improve their marketing practices and to demonstrate their commitment to the International Code’s aim: “To contribute to the provision of safe and adequate nutrition for infants, by the protection and promotion of breast-feeding, 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”.

ISDI welcomes all efforts to protect, promote and support appropriate infant and young child feeding. As such, we also take this occasion to reiterate our wholehearted support for the aim and objectives of the Global Strategy on Infant and Young Child Feeding. We commend the WHO, governments and other stakeholders on their efforts to achieve its implementation. For its part, the infant food industry will continue to serve an essential area of health care with the vital research it carries out and feeding about 70 million infants and young children worldwide with foods designed to meet their specific needs.

Finally, ISDI congratulates the WHO on the publication of its first set of growth reference standards that focuses on the breastfed infant as the normative model. Regulations and standards set by national and international food and health agencies and the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission determine the composition of infant formula for non-breastfed infants. Should further research conclude there is a need to change the composition of these products to achieve optimal growth rates, the infant food industry will readily make those changes in accordance with the scientific criteria and mandates of these agencies.

Thank you, Chair.

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