Kraft Heinz
Headquarters
United StatesType of ownership
PublicEstimated percentage of Kraft Heinz's global F&B sales from CF
3%Estimated percentage of Kraft Heinz's global baby food sales from CF
97%Countries covered in country studies
China/Indonesia© All rights reserved
Score 2024
Score
Score
Important:
The research findings regarding companies’ performance in this Index are based on information shared by companies or gathered by service providers, in addition to information that is available in the public domain.
The level of detail and comprehensiveness of information shared by companies and gathered through external service providers varied. In the case of limited or no engagement by companies, this Index may not represent the full extent of their efforts. Similarly, in the case of limited data collected by service providers, the findings of this Index may not provide a comprehensive representation of company practices.
ATNI’s research and Indexes do not assess compliance with local regulations or laws, but rather assess private sector performance against international standards and guidance.
CF Country Studies
Score
The Country Studies component of the BMS and CF Marketing Indexes 2024 evaluates the extent to which a company’s marketing practices align with specific provisions of the WHO Code (not against local Code-related regulations). The main marketing channels assessed in the Country Studies for the BMS and CF Marketing Indexes 2024 are online points-of-sale, traditional and online media outlets, and product labels which were all assessed according to the NetCode protocol. Kraft Heinz sells CF products in two (China and Indonesia) of the five countries selected for the assessment, which altogether represent approximately 36% of Kraft Heinz’s estimated global CF sales. The Country Studies results for Kraft Heinz are summarized below for each country and across each marketing channel.
Country Studies overview
| Kraft Heinz | Country assessments | CF market | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total incidences of non-compliance across online, traditional media, and product labels | Number of product labels assessed | Company brands found | CF market share | Proportion of Kraft Heinz's global CF sales | |
| CHINA | 29 | 6 | Heinz | 8% | 34% |
| GERMANY | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| INDONESIA | 36 | 7 | Heinz Baby | 8% | 2% |
| US | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| VIET NAM | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
(0 incidences of Code non-compliance corresponding to a country score of 100%)
(>0-10 incidences of Code non-compliance corresponding to a country score of 66%)
(>10-20 incidences of Code non-compliance corresponding to a country score of 33%)
(> 20 incidences of Code non-compliance corresponding to a country score of 0%)
• In China, where Kraft Heinz CF sales account for approximately 8% of the total Chinese CF market and approximately 34% of the company’s global CF sales. A total of 29 incidences of non-compliance were found, of which 23 were within online media channels. All six product labels assessed contained one or more instances of non-compliance.
• In Indonesia, Kraft Heinz also has approximately 8% of the CF market, while it only represents approximately 2% of the company’s global CF sales. In total, 36 incidences of non-compliance were found, and all seven CF products labels assessed contained one or more instances of non-compliance.
Observed incidences of non-compliance with the Code per country
food < 6 months of age
food 6-36 months of age
Main in-country findings
Kraft Heinz’s highest number of incidences of non-compliant marketing practices were found in Indonesia (36), followed by China (29).
Across the two countries assessments, most incidences of non-compliance observed for Kraft Heinz were identified through the social listening of online platforms (52), followed by inappropriate product labels (13). No incidences of non-compliance were found in traditional media in the six-month period the selected channels were monitored.
From all 65 incidences of non-compliance found for Kraft Heinz, five CF products were explicitly intended for infants below six months of age. According to the WHO, these products should not be available on the market and were counted as incidences of non-compliance. There were also 42 CF products found that had no clear age of introduction specified. The remaining 18 observations from commercial complementary foods were clearly marketed as suitable for older infants and young children between six months and up to three years of age.
Online findings
• Among the total incidences of non-compliance found online (52), eight were non-compliant online point-of-sale promotions of Kraft Heinz’s CF products from online retail channels, mainly in the form of discounts and coupons. No online point-of-sale promotions were found of Kraft Heinz’s CF products in Indonesia in the eight-week period the channels were monitored. All point-of-sale promotions assessed were missing the statement on the importance of exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of life and continued breastfeeding for up to two years or beyond. All online point-of-sale promotions found included all three types of nutrition, health, and marketing claims. However, is good to note that they all had a clear recommended age of introduction.
• The remaining 44 non-compliant observations were found on the company’s local websites and social media platforms, with the higher number of findings in Indonesia (29), followed by China (15).
• Across Indonesia and China where online adverts of Kraft Heinz’s CF products were found, an average of two and three, respectively, incidences of non-compliance were identified with each observation. All the online media adverts were missing the statement on the importance of exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of life and continued breastfeeding for up to two years or beyond. Most of the online media adverts found in China (12 out of 15) and Indonesia (25 out of 29) did not clearly indicate the recommended age of introduction. In addition, six observations of the online media adverts for Kraft Heinz CF products (four in China and two in Indonesia) were found to contain an element which undermined or discouraged appropriate complementary feeding, suggesting the product is superior to home prepared foods. For example, statements were found suggesting that the preparation of complementary foods is “a big hurdle”, “homemade purées are not necessarily safer”, and a post was showing children sucking directly from a CF product pouch which is against WHO recommendations.
• Other common incidences of non-compliance found with the online advertisements of Kraft Heinz’s products included the provision of information and education on infant and young child feeding. Additionally, the company was found to contract health professionals to provide education on infant and child nutrition, which poses a conflict of interest as per recommendation 6 of the guidance supported by WHA 69.9 resolution.
• From the online media channels 87% of the non-compliant adverts found in China contained a claim which were mainly from marketing claims, followed by nutritional and health claims. In contrast, from the online media adverts found in Indonesia, 41% contained claims, which were mainly marketing claims, followed by health and nutritional claims.
Traditional media findings
• There were no observations in China or Indonesia of Kraft Heinz CF promoted on traditional media in the six-month period the selected channels were monitored.
CF product label
• The total number of Kraft Heinz CF products assessed were seven in Indonesia and six in China.
• In total three products in Indonesia were found to be marketed as suitable for infants under six months of age, this product was not assessed as it should not be available on the market marketed according to the WHO. Therefore, the following results are for CF 6-36 months and those with no clear age indicated.
• For all the remaining Kraft Heinz product labels assessed, at least one incidence of Code non-compliance was observed. The average number of incidences of non-compliance per product label per market was three in both China and Indonesia.
• For the product labels assessed in Indonesia, three out of the remaining four products were labelled in English with no information stated in the local language, therefore not committing to the Code recommendations for CF to be in the local language of the consumers to ensure awareness of the product and its appropriate use.
• All of Kraft Heinz’s CF product labels assessed in China and Indonesia were missing a statement on the importance of exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months and continued breastfeeding for up to two years or beyond. They were also found to have at least one type of claim (nutritional, health and/or marketing claim).
• It is worth noting that ATNI did not have the resources to collect products from the different markets and take pictures of their labels. For this assessment ATNI used product label images from an external provider. For some products, images were not clear enough or did not show all parts of the package, in these cases ATNI asked the respective companies to provide images of the labels. Kraft Heinz provided images of product labels to help complete the assessments, therefore the assessment of all products is complete.
Recommendations
• Commercial complementary foods explicitly intended for infants under six months of age were found for Kraft Heinz in this assessment, which is against WHO recommendations as these products are considered unwanted breast-milk substitutes since they interfere with exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months. Kraft Heinz is urged to stop producing and selling commercial CF for infants under six months of age in line with global public health recommendations.
• Given the incidences of non-compliant marketing practices for CF products observed, Kraft Heinz is recommended to ensure that CF products are appropriately promoted in line with the 2016 WHO Guidance on ending the inappropriate promotion of foods for infants and young children supported by WHA resolution 69.9.
• Kraft Heinz is encouraged to consider the recommendations of the WHA 69.9 supported guidance to appropriately advertise and promote CF products and brands intended for older infants and young children between six months and three years of age on all forms of media platforms globally. The company should also refrain from including endorsements by professionals like nutritionists.
• The World Health Assembly (WHA) 69.9 supported guidance includes recommendations around which messages should be present on CF labels to support optimal infant and young child feeding, and which are inappropriate and could undermine recommended practices. Kraft Heinz should incorporate these recommendations in their policies and practices and apply them to their CF products, as none of the CF products in this assessment fully met these requirements. The company should aim to address missing statements on exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of life and continued breastfeeding for up to two years or beyond while also ensuring that product labels in each market are appropriately translated into local languages. Kraft Heinz is also encouraged to revise its products’ labels such that they clearly specify the appropriate age of introduction on all products across all markets.
• Kraft Heinz is strongly encouraged to take responsibility for monitoring its marketing practices beyond local regulations, according to the principles and the aim of the Code and subsequent relevant resolutions, and to take steps to ensure this includes online media channels.
• ATNI is calling on Kraft Heinz to review all incidences of non-compliance identified across all marketing channels, which were shared in detail with the company, and to take corrective action in each of the markets.
CF Corporate Profile
Score
The Corporate Profile component of the BMS and CF Marketing Indexes 2024 evaluates the extent to which a company’s policies align with various provisions of the Code, the effectiveness of its related management systems as well as the company’s level of disclosure on commitments relating to CF marketing. Kraft Heinz’s CF marketing commitments were assessed across nine topics that cover different aspects of the Code, yielding an average score that is equivalent to the company’s initial overall Corporate Profile score before a geographic penalty (if applicable) is applied. However, the assessment on one of the indicators in the first topic on “Guiding Principles of Infant and Young Child Feeding” determines whether a company receives the full initial overall Corporate Profile score or only half of it. A company that is found to market CF for infants under six months of age only gets half of the initial overall Corporate Profile score. As described in the findings on the topic “Guiding Principles of Infant and Young Child Feeding” below, Kraft Heinz was found to market CF products for infants under six months of age, therefore its initial overall Corporate Profile score was halved from 10 % to 5%. The final Corporate Profile score considers how the company’s marketing commitments are applied across different markets for CF products intended for older infants and young children between six months and up to three years of age (CF 6-36 months). The next section ‘Geographic application of CF commitments by product type’ shows how the company’s application of commitments for CF 6-36 months was evaluated. The scores and findings on each topic are described in further detail in the section below on ‘CF Commitments by Topic’.
Geographic application by Kraft Heinz of CF commitments by product type
The percentage of product sales where commitments are upheld, and the geographic penalty applied to CF products intended for older infants and young children aged six months up to three years. The penalty ranges from 0% up to 90% depending on whether a company fully upholds its CF marketing commitments in all or none of the countries in which it operates, respectively, where national Code regulations are absent or less stringent than the company’s policies and standards.
|
Corporate Profile score before penalty |
Product type |
Percentage of Kraft Heinz’s global sales from markets where CF commitments are upheld |
Geographic penalty applied |
Final Corporate Profile score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.9% |
Commercial complementary foods 6-36 months |
0% | 90% | 0.5% |
Commercial Complementary Foods
• No information was found in the public domain nor shared by the company describing if and where (in what markets) marketing commitments are upheld for CF 6-36 products. Therefore, the corresponding geographic penalty is the maximum of 90% and the final Corporate Profile score is 0.5%.
• ATNI calls on Kraft Heinz to consider the expanded definition of the Code, following the WHA resolution 69.9 recommendations that cover and address the responsible marketing of commercially produced complementary foods intended for older infants and young children aged 6–36 months.
Topics Overview
CF commitments by topic
Most topics include both policy commitments and management systems except for ‘Guiding principles of infant and young child feeding’ which only considers policy commitments, ‘Implementation and Monitoring’ which only considers management systems, and ‘Disclosure’ which only considers the level of disclosure of identified commitments. ‘Lobbying and Policy Influence’ is the only topic that includes policy commitments, management systems and disclosure.