Big CPGs have not been making food and drink healthier, study finds

Dive Brief:

• The 11 largest food companies in the U.S. have not made adequate progress in making their products healthier, more affordable and easier for people to access — even though they have publicly said they were increasing their commitments, according to a study by the Access to Nutrition Initiative.
• Only a few companies have translated those goals into concrete actions, ATNI’s 2022 Access to Nutrition U.S. Index found. About 70% of all food and beverages are less “healthy,” the group discovered, and no big CPG gets a majority of its sales from “healthier” products.
• The recent White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health has shifted the attention of how to improve the food system, health care and policy to eradicate hunger and decrease rates of preventable diet-related disease. This study shows how far major CPG companies need to go to help meet these goals. 

Dive Insight:

Big CPGs can talk about nutrition as much as they want, but words don’t add up to action. ATNI’s 2022 Index found that the action so far has largely been lacking — but at least the talking has begun.

ATNI analyzed products and policies from the 11 largest companies in the U.S. food and beverage space — Campbell Soup, Coca-Cola, Conagra Brands, General Mills, Kellogg, Keurig Dr Pepper, Kraft Heinz, Mars, Nestlé, PepsiCo and Unilever.

They looked at several different aspects — including product healthiness and reformulation targets, responsible marketing, access and affordability of healthy foods and labeling and lobbying to improve nutritional strategies. These were considered and tabulated to give the companies a score between one and 10.

Many companies saw higher scores this year, compared with the previous 2018 index. The average score this year is 4.2 out of 10, up from 3 out of 10 in 2018.

Unilever had the top score with a 5.5 out of 10, due to its increased emphasis on nutrition strategy and accountability, reformulation, support of healthy diets in the workforce, and lobbying in support of nutrition. Kellogg, PepsiCo, General Mills and Nestlé rounded out the top five.

But while there has been improvement, the report pointed out that even a score of 5.6 out of 10 is extremely low and represents poor performance. The lowest-ranked company was Coca-Cola at 3.0. Kraft Heinz and Conagra Brands were the second and third-lowest ranked.

“I am concerned by such limited progress that companies have made over the last five years,” Greg S. Garrett, ATNI’s executive director, said in a statement. “We see some improvements, but we cannot afford such slow progress among the largest manufacturers who make, market and sell our food. Both private and public sectors need to do much more to improve the diets of U.S. families.”

The report found many companies are taking a look at what is “healthy,” though at the time that data was gathered, there was no standardized definition for the term. Late last month, FDA published a proposed new definition of “healthy.” 

Six companies had implemented front-of-package informational labeling for more than 80% of their products and nine had online nutritional information for the same percentage, both of which are proposals in the Biden administration’s national strategy to end hunger and start improving diet-related health outcomes. 

But a lot of the progress — or lack thereof — lies in actual action. It’s easy for companies to say they plan to reformulate products to reduce less beneficial nutrients, but it takes more work to actually do it. Considering that it often takes months, if not more than a year, for a big CPG to get a reformulated product on the shelf, there may be more progress on changing product formulations to reduce less beneficial ingredients in the near future.

The study also pointed out that just four companies seem to be working on making their healthier products more affordable to lower-income consumers. This may be even more difficult now than it was during the time that ATNI benchmarked company progress. Today, persistent inflation continues to push all food prices higher.