Nestlé’s, the company that manufactures Maggi noodles, KitKats and Nescafe, in an internal document admitted that over 70% of its food and drinks portfolio are not intact with the “recognised definition of health”. This Switzerland based company, also admitted that some of its food products will ‘never be healthy’ no matter “how much we renovate”.
As per the Financial Times, A UK business daily, a presentation circulated amongst the top executives explains that only 37% of Nestle’s products, excluding pet food and specialised medical nutrition, could get the rating of 3.5 or higher, if following Australia’s health star rating system. The company acknowledged the 3.5-star rating as the “recognised definition of health”. Any food product gets the ratings out of 5 stars and many international groups use it as the benchmark.
“We have made significant improvements to our products…[but] our portfolio still underperforms against external definitions of health in a landscape where regulatory pressure and consumer demands are skyrocketing,” the internal presentation said.
As per the presentation, some products like DiGiorno’s three meat croissant crust pizza consists almost 40 per cent of a person’s recommended daily sodium intake while other products like hot pockets pepperoni pizza include 48 per cent.
San Pellegrino, an orange flavoured drink, got an ‘E’ rating, the worst score available under the rating system- Nutria-Score. This drink has over 7.1 gram of sugar per 100 ml. Several Nestle beverages contain sodium more than the advisable limit.
Financial Times says that out of the total food and drinks portfolio of the company, 70% of products failed to make the cutoff, and 90% of beverages excluding pure coffee.
Water and dairy products, however, weighed better with 82% of water and 60% of dairy above the ceiling.
“We have made significant improvements to our products . . .[but] our portfolio still underperforms against external definitions of health in a landscape where regulatory pressure and consumer demands are skyrocketing,” quoted FT from the presentation.
“We are looking at our entire portfolio across the different phases of people’s lives to ensure our products are helping meet their nutritional needs and supporting a balanced diet,” Nestle said in a statement after the report.
“We believe that a healthy diet means finding a balance between wellbeing and enjoyment. This includes having some space for indulgent foods, consumed in moderation. Our direction of travel has not changed and is clear: we will continue to make our portfolio tastier and healthier,” it added.
“Our efforts build on a strong foundation of work over decades…For example, we have reduced the sugars and sodium in our products significantly in the past two decades, about 14-15 per cent in the past seven years alone,” it said.