Unilever ramps up nutrition portfolio targets and performance reporting after investors turn up heat on health | Food Ingredients First

This article reports that, as a result of the shareholder resolution coordinated by UK responsible investment charity ShareAction, Unilever has committed to publicly report the performance of its product portfolio against at least six different government-endorsed Nutrient Profile Models (NPM) as well as its own Highest Nutritional Standards (HNS).

The resolution urged the company to adopt ambitious targets to increase the share of healthy foods in its sales, as the Global Index 2021 Product Profile results indicated that Unilever’s product portfolio is less healthy than that of some of its competitors.

“The Access to Nutrition Initiative, a benchmarking organization for food companies and their investors, discovered last year that just 17% of Unilever’s food and beverage sales were derived from healthier products.

This was a smaller proportion than many of its competitors, including Danone (61%), Nestlé (43%), Kraft Heinz (36%), General Mills (29%) and Kellogg (26%).

In 2020, Unilever reported that – using the company’s own definitions – 61% of its food and drink sales were derived from products with “High Nutritional Standards,” but investors still question its metrics, according to ShareAction.”