Nestlé comments to e-consultation: Call for examples and good practices on investments for healthy food systems
Nestlé would like to thank the Committee on World Food Security for opportunity to share experiences and examples of good practices on investments to promote healthy food systems.
To give our submission some context, we would like to share with you some background. Nestlé touch billions of lives worldwide; from the farmers we work with to the individuals and families who enjoy our products, the communities where we live and work, and the natural environment upon which we all depend. Their challenges are our challenges. Their success is success in which we all share. Inspired by the scientific breakthrough of our founder, Henri Nestlé, guided by our values and with nutrition at our core, we work alongside partners to enhance quality of life and contribute to a healthier future. This means that for individuals and families, we offer products and services that enable healthier and happier lives. For our communities, we help develop thriving and resilient communities and support better livelihoods for those we live and work with. For the planet, we shape sustainable consumption and steward resources for future generations.
With regards to promoting healthy food systems, we understand that achieving nutritional balance remains a significant global challenge. Millions of people lack access to the right nutrition, while millions more over-consume foods and beverages that are high in key nutrients of concern, such as sugar, salt and fat. Addressing all forms of malnutrition – undernutrition, micronutrient fortification, and overweight and obesity – as well as encouraging healthy diets, requires concerted collective action from governments, public health authorities, industry and civil society. Nestlé would like to share a few brief examples on how it is addressing nutritional challenges and contributing to healthy food systems.
Addressing overconsumption through product innovation and renovation
Public health evidence shows that diets with lower salt, sugars, saturated fat and trans fats can improve health outcomes and decrease non-communicable diseases (NCDs). We aim to reduce the levels of these nutrients in our foods and beverages through science-based product renovation and innovation. Our research activities focus on understanding consumer habits, and seek to deliver tastier, healthier choices compared to others on the market. We continually work to reduce the levels of salt, sugars and saturated fats in our foods and beverages, to add more vegetables, whole grains and fibre, and to fortify them with micronutrients where they are deficient in the local population.
Last year our efforts included the following results:
- We reduced our added sugar content by 8%, the equivalent of 39000 tonnes. Our efforts in this area will continue through our new commitment to further reduce the sugars we add in our products by 5% by 2020.
- We reduced sodium content by 10.5% in our foods and beverages, equivalent to an overall salt reduction of 2700 tonnes. While this means we have exceeded our 10% reduction objective, our efforts in this area will continue through our new commitment to further reduce the sodium we add in our products by 10% by 2020.
- We reduced the saturated fat content by 6.5%, equivalent to 6200 tonnes. Developing new technologies, working with suppliers and farmers on new fats and oils, carrying out stability studies and investing in equipment are required to reduce saturated fats across our portfolio.
In addition to the aforementioned activities, we share our insights on global health and nutrition challenges, and engage with policy-makers, stakeholders and key opinion leaders, to foster a dynamic exchange of ideas and solutions that could positively impact millions of individuals and families.
Nestlé Nutritional Profiling System
We seek to continually improve our foods and beverages for children by assessing them all through the Nestlé Nutritional Profiling System (NNPS) criteria. Our consumer testing programme ensures a taste preference by at least 60% of consumers, while the NNPS guarantees our recipes make a positive nutritional contribution. Together, they form our 60/40+ programme. Our work begins with the NNPS criteria, which we use to determine how our foods and beverages fit into a child’s or adult’s daily dietary intake. We consider nutrients such as added sugars, saturated fats, trans fats, salt and energy content, as well as ensuring the nutritional contributions from calcium, protein, fibre and whole grain sources. When all the criteria for a specific category are met, a product is considered to represent an appropriate choice in the context of a balanced diet, thereby achieving Nestlé Nutritional Foundation (NF) status. Around 88.5% of our total portfolio has been assessed through the NNPS, and 95% of our foods and beverages for children achieved NF status in 2016.
In fact, two papers were published in April, 2017 on NNPS. The first paper is entitled “Nutrient profiling for product reformulation: the benefit for the consumer” (Authors: Undine Lehmann, Véronique Rheiner Charles, Antonis Vlassopoulos, Gabriel Masset, Jörg Spieldenner) and was published in the Journal Proceedings of the Nutrition Society (IF 4.7). The second paper is entitled “Testing the Capacity of a Multi-Nutrient Profiling System to Guide Food and Beverage Reformulation: Results from Five National Food Composition Databases” (Authors: Emilie Combet, Antonis Vlassopoulos, Famke Mölenberg, Mathilde Gressier, Lisa Privet, Craig Wratten, Sahar Sharif, Florent Vieux, Undine Lehmann, Gabriel Masset) It was published in Nutrients (IF 3.8).
Enhancing the micronutrient profile of its foods and beverages through fortification
The adequate and appropriate dietary intake of essential vitamins, minerals and trace elements (also referred to collectively in this document as micronutrients) are key to meeting nutritional requirements necessary for maintaining health and wellness at all life stages. It is estimated that worldwide more than 2 billion people suffer from some degree of micronutrient deficiency, the most prevalent being iron, vitamin A, iodine and zinc.
Ideally, nutrients that are essential for health should be obtained from a balanced and varied diet. For a number of reasons this is not always possible. Nestlé has over the decades acquired considerable experience in enhancing the micronutrient profile of its foods and beverages through fortification.
We fortify foods and beverages such as condiments, children’s milks and cereals to provide additional nourishment for vulnerable groups such as school-age children and expectant mothers. These products are all effective carriers for micronutrient fortification because they are consumed widely and frequently, building on existing eating habits. We focus our efforts on regions that face some of the largest burden of micronutrient deficiencies such as Africa and South East Asia. Of the 207 billion servings provided in 2016, 121 billion were fortified with iron (an annual increase of 23%), 113 billion with iodine (an 8% increase), 27 billion with zinc and 42 billion with vitamin A. Products can be fortified with one or several micronutrients.
For example, the popularity and market reach of our Maggi product range give us a solid platform for helping tackle micronutrient deficiencies at scale. Almost 103 billion individual servings of Maggi soups, condiments, seasonings and noodles were fortified in 2016, of which 59 billion were fortified with iron.
Biofortification to improve nutritional value of food crops
Biofortification is the process by which the nutritional value of food crops is improved through biological means such as conventional plant breeding. It differs from direct fortification in that biofortification aims to increase nutrient levels in crops during a plant’s growth stage, rather than through being added during processing. As such, biofortification could be used to reach populations where direct fortification may be difficult to implement. In addition, farmers who supply us with raw materials like rice and wheat will also have access to these fortified foods.
Biofortification requires a detailed study and analysis of the many factors that determine how a crop grows, working closely with the farmers that will grow it. We are collaborating with agricultural research institutes in several countries, working to develop and establish supply chains for biofortified crops, to ensure that commercial quantities will be available in the future. This is a complex process that can take years, and requires a careful and collaborative balance between stakeholders in difficult circumstances.
We are focusing on the most promising biofortified crops and have streamlined development work at our R&D centres from six staple crops in 2013 to four in 2014: maize, wheat, sweet potato and rice. For example, we are establishing a supply chain for vitamin A-rich maize in north Nigeria, where the average yield of maize in Nigeria is only 1–2 tonnes per hectare. Our aim is to significantly improve yield while at the same time providing the fortified crop for our own supply chain and for direct consumption by the local community.
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to share with your our work. The health of our company is intrinsically linked to the health and resilience of the society we operate in. For more information please visit http://www.nestle.com/csv
Mme Helen Medina