The world’s largest food company, Nestlé in Switzerland, attracted attention after its internal document was released to the public. It states that most of its products cannot be considered healthy. The Financial Times reported. According to him, the company admits that over 60 percent of the mainstream offer does not meet the “recognized definition of health”. And he adds that some products will never be like that.
Finacial Times he has available circular for Nestlé’s top managers from the beginning of this year.
The food giant works with the Australian food health rating system, which divides foods according to their salt, sugar or fat content. The healthiest food has five stars, while 3.5 stars are enough for the “recognized definition of health”.
However, only a minority of Nestlé products meet this assessment, as measured by their share of total sales. On the other hand, the document does not deal with health nutrition, selected coffee and infant nutrition, but naturally also with animal feed, which the company also has in its portfolio. If she took them into account, according to analyst Jon Cox from Kepler Cheuvreux, the proportion of potentially unhealthy products would be reduced, Reuters reported.
“We have significantly improved our products, but our portfolio is still not doing well against external definitions of health in an environment where regulatory pressure and customer demands are rising sharply,” the document said.
The document goes on to give an example of several Nestlé products that are downright unhealthy. These include deep-frozen pizzas from the American brands DiGiorno and Hot Pockets, which contain about 40 percent of the daily dose of sodium for an adult. Excess sodium, which we already obtain from salt, can be harmful to health.
Nesquik instant drink with strawberry flavor, in turn, which, according to the manufacturers, corresponds to 14 g and is to be mixed in milk, contains 14 g of sugar. The manufacturer describes it as “the perfect breakfast that will prepare children for the day”.
The company said it was working on a company-wide project to innovate its nutrition and health strategy. In future, all its products should meet people’s nutritional needs.
Mark Schneider CEO confirmed that customers want a healthier diet. However, he rejected claims about the harmfulness of processed foods. Nestlé also stated that in recent years it has launched thousands of products for children and families that meet all nutritional criteria.
Nestlé operates in 189 countries and has approximately 350,000 employees. For example, it produces Nescafé and Nespresso coffees, Kit Kat chocolate bars, Nesquik cereals, Maggi spice mixes or Purina Pro Plan and Friskies pet food.
In the Czech Republic, the Nestlé group includes the Zora Olomouc and Sfinx Holešov factories with the Orion, Margot, Kofila, Bon Pari and Jojo brands.
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