In May 1981, Nestlé announced it would support the code and
waited for individual countries to pass national codes that would then be put into effect
Unfortunately, very few such codes were forth-
coming. By the end of 1983, only 25 of the 157 member nations of
the WHO had established national codes. Accordingly, Nestlé man-
agement determined it would have to apply the code in the absence
of national legislation, and in February 1982, it issued instructions to
marketing personnel that delineated the company’s best understand-
ing of the code and what would have to be done to follow it.