Inappropriate language

Article 9.2 of the International Code requires that labels are in a language appropriate to the country where the products are sold.

IBFANs monitoring finds cases where this is not respected. Sometimes companies include under-lid leaflets in other languages. This will only be read after buying the product. Even parents who choose to breastfeed should be able to understand the warnings on a breastmilk substitutes so that their choice is not undermined.

IBFAN achieved a major breakthrough in 1999 when, following an investigation on national television in the UK, the market leader, Nestle, gave an undertaking to review the labels of its baby milks to ensure they comply with the requirements introduced 18 years before. While Nestle products with labels in the wrong language
are still found, there has been much progress since the stance three years earlier when the company unapologetically stated: "Due to cost restraints of small runs it has not been viable to change languages for
specific export markets."

The economic argument for proceeding with inappropriate labels seems to continue to apply when companies enter new markets, such as the Central Asian Republics after the break-up of the Soviet Union and, more recently, Mongolia.