Campbell
Product categories assessed
Baked Goods|Juice|Sauces, Dressings, Condiments|Soup|Savory SnacksPercentage of company global sales covered by Product Profile assessment
75-80%Headquarters
U.S.Number of employees
19000Type of ownership
PublicImportant:
The findings of this Index regarding companies’ performance rely to a large extent on information shared by companies, in addition to information that is available in the public domain. Several factors beyond the companies’ control may impact the availability of information such as differences in disclosure requirements among countries or capacity constraints within companies, amongst others the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, in the case of limited or no engagement by such companies, this Index may not represent the full extent of their efforts.
Corporate Profile
Rank 14
Commitment
Performance
Disclosure
Main areas
of strength
● GOVERNANCE: In the 2021 Index, Campbell has improved in recognizing its role in tackling the global challenges of increasing levels of obesity and diet-related chronic diseases. It now commits to address the SDGs and priorities set out in the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases 2013-2020; a great improvement from 2018. It has expanded this commitment to show clear reporting on current performance against all objectives and targets.
● GOVERNANCE: The CEO is formally accountable for implementing the company's nutrition strategy. Campbell publicly discloses an annual internal audit of this nutrition strategy, which is approved by the Board of Directors.
Campbell now conducts nutrition-related risk assessments at least every two years, an improvement since 2018.
● PRODUCTS: Campbell commits to offering consumers “nutrition and wellness choices” and uses three definitions and sets of thresholds for the composition of such products: 1) products with limited negative nutrients; 2) products that promote positive nutrition; and 3) healthy products. It has a set of thresholds per relevant nutrient for each of the types referred to, developed with advice from experts and aligned to national dietary guidelines. Campbell has strengthened its methods to calculate the overall nutritional quality of its products and categories by committing to use its own precursor to a Nutrient Profiling Model (NPM). The company has publicly disclosed that they use this NPM to track progress and highlight how they perform against nutrition recommendations. In addition, the company publicly reveals the percentage of the company’s sales of ‘healthy’ products and the total number, or the change in percentage, of the number of new healthy products.
● ACCESSIBILITY: Concerning affordability and accessibility, Campbell provides evidence or examples of improving the physical accessibility of healthy products that address undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies, through non-commercial activities.
● MARKETING: Since the 2018 Index, Campbell has improved on its commitments to responsible marketing to children. The company commits to only market products meeting the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative’s (CFBAI) category-specific uniform nutrition criteria to children under 12 years. In schools with children over 12 years the company only offers products aligned with USDA smart snacks and CFBAI criteria. The company has published its pledge in full and audits and discloses its compliance. Regarding responsible marketing to all consumers, Campbell publicly discloses its adherence to the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) framework.
● LABELING: Compared to 2018, Campbell has advanced in product labelling. The company now commits to and discloses its compliance with Codex Alimentarius Guidelines for use of Nutrition and Health Claims in countries where no national regulatory system exists.
● ENGAGEMENT The company is commended for having a formal panel of experts in place, consisting of food and nutrition scientists from prominent universities and private organizations, to advise the company on their approach to addressing obesity and diet-related chronic diseases. In 2020, for example, this panel helped finalize the company’s corporate position paper on sodium.
Priority areas
for improvement
● SCORES AND RANKS: Campbell ranks 14th in the Global Index with a score of 3.0 out of 10. Although Campbell scores above average on Governance and Labeling and shows a consistent score in marketing, ATNI found that the company’s performance in other categories leaves room for significant improvement. The company could make considerable improvements in Accessibility, Lifestyles and Engagement in particular.
● GOVERNANCE: Campbell has not scored well on its efforts to include undernutrition and priority populations at risk of malnutrition in its overall strategies. As such, the company is advised to address the needs of priority populations through healthy products. Campbell could still improve further in Governance by including future targets, challenges, and reports on impact.
● PRODUCTS: The company is advised to strengthen its commitments on the formulation or reformulation of products. Campbell has identified a need for calorie reduction. To improve, the company could consider publicly disclosing evidence of thresholds or targets. In addition, as in 2018, the company does not have targets to reduce the levels of saturated fats or sugar in its products, nor to increase levels of whole grains or fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes (FVNL) to any of its products. The company is advised to strengthen its product formulation commitments by developing targets that are global in scope, include all product categories, and define specific baselines and target years to achieve them. The company is also encouraged to publicly report on its progress annually.
● PRODUCTS: Although the company has implemented a precursor to an NPM to determine the healthiness of its products, when considering (re)formulation, Campbell is encouraged to follow (inter)national or regional dietary guidelines and adopt and publish a government-endorsed NPM. In addition, the company is encouraged to base the fortification of its products on international Codex guidelines, and comply with national regulations in the countries in which it operates.
● ACCESSIBILITY: The company is encouraged to extend its efforts to improve accessibility of healthy products to go beyond non-commercial activities and have a stronger commercial focus.
● MARKETING: As in 2018, Campbell has provided evidence that its global policy on responsible marketing remains in place. However, it does not publicly disclose to which media types this applies. To improve in this area, ATNI recommends that the company discloses this, further commits to ensuring the commercial purpose of marketing communications is transparent and recognizable as an advertisement, and clearly displays the company or brand name when advertising on virtual media.
● MARKETING: The company commit to only market foods meeting the CFBAI's category-specific uniform nutrition criteria to not market products to children under 12 years and restricts advertising to children below the age of six. However, to shield children, the company is advised to improve on this by committing to not deploy children, influencers, and fantasy and animated characters in its marketing, and incorporate a responsible marketing policy regarding the use of promotional toys, games, vouchers, and competitions. The company could additionally consider extending its compliance auditing to all audiences, globally. The company could strengthen its policies regarding marketing to children by committing to not market its products in places popular with children (not just schools). Although Campbell now audits and discloses its policy compliance, to achieve best practice in this area, the company could consider extending this to all audiences globally, not just children in its major markets.
● LIFESTYLES: The company does not show evidence of programs to support its employees’ wellness and health. Campbell does have programs in place to aid employees with mental health; however, they do not extend this to include nutrition. The company is strongly encouraged to incorporate programs for its employees and their families, and improve on performance and transparency in this area. And, although breastfeeding mothers are offered flexible work hours and breastfeeding rooms, ATNI recommends the company considers adopting a global policy with a standard period of paid maternity leave and facilities, consistent in all markets.
● LABELING: In 2018, Campbell was encouraged to adopt a global policy that commits to using an interpretative front-of-pack (FOP) labeling format. So far, the company commits to show numeric information, FOP with a percentage relating to Guideline Daily Allowance for all nutrients. It also discloses this only for major markets, and it is recommended that this be expanded globally. Regarding the rollout of its FOP labeling commitments, the company is advised to extend this to all products and markets globally, and to refer to an NPM to assess product healthiness prior to using claims.
● ENGAGEMENT: The company is advised to commit to only lobby in support of measures designed to improve health and nutrition that have a solid grounding in independent, peer-reviewed science. They could consider developing adequate internal controls to ensure their lobbying activities align with company policy. The company is also encouraged to provide greater disclosure around its lobbying efforts on nutrition-related topics, and on measures to prevent and address obesity and diet-related chronic diseases.
● ENGAGEMENT: Unlike in 2018, the company did not provide evidence of engaging with specific stakeholders to develop its nutrition strategy, policies and/or programs, or of any partnerships with international initiatives/organizations to address malnutrition in priority populations. Campbell is encouraged to conduct well-structured and focused engagement with a variety of independent stakeholders that have expertise in nutrition and addressing malnutrition, in order to strengthen their strategies and policies.
Category Analysis
Governance
Products
Accessibility
Marketing
Workforce
Labeling
Engagement
Nutrition
- A1
- Nutrition strategy
- A2
- Nutrition management
- A3
- Reporting quality
- B1
- Product Profile
- B2
- Product formulation
- B3
- Defining healthy products
- C1
- Product pricing
- C2
- Product distribution
- D1
- Marketing policy
- D2
- Marketing to children
- D3
- Auditing and compliance
- E1
- Employee health
- E2
- Breastfeeding support
- E3
- Consumer health
- F1
- Product labeling
- F2
- Claims
- G1
- Influencing policymakers
- G2
- Stakeholder engagement
Commitment
Performance
Disclosure
Detailed Product Profile Results
The Product Profile is an independent assessment of the nutritional quality of companies’ product portfolios. For this purpose, ATNI uses the Health Star Rating (HSR) model, which rates foods from 0.5 to 5.0 based on their nutritional quality. ATNI uses the threshold of 3.5 stars or more to classify products as generally healthy. This assessment is undertaken in partnership with The George Institute for Global Health (TGI), with additional data input from Innova Market Insights.
The methodology for the Global Index 2021 Product Profile has been revised and now includes three scored elements. The overall Product Profile score reflects: B1.1, the mean healthiness of a company’s product portfolio; B1.2, the relative healthiness within product categories compared to peers, and; B1.3, changes in the nutritional quality of product portfolios compared to the Global Index 2018 Product Profile. The steps taken to calculate the final Product Profile scores are visualized in Box 1. The next section further explains each of these three elements.
Campbell has been assessed for the second time in the Global Index Product Profile. In the previous assessment, seven of the company’s markets were selected, and a total of 1,469 products analyzed – accounting for approximately 80-85% of global retail sales in 2017, excluding baby foods, plain tea, and coffee. In this Index, a total of 1158 products have been analyzed across 3 of the company’s major markets. Products from the top five best-selling product categories within each market are included. In 2019, these products accounted for almost 75-80% of the company’s global retail sales, excluding baby foods, plain tea, and coffee.
Canada is the only new country included in this iteration. Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, the UK and India were included in the 2018 but have been omitted this time. In 2018, a total of 7 product categories were covered by the assessment, compared to 5 categories in 2021. Products from the ‘Ready Meals’ and ‘Sweet Biscuits, Snack Bars and Fruit Snacks’ were assessed in 2018 but are not in 2021.
In this Product Profile assessment, Campbell scores 5.9 out of 10 (B1.1) in the mean healthiness element and 7.7 out of 10 (B1.2) for the relative healthiness of its products within categories compared to peers, and 0 out of 10 (B1.3) for changes in nutritional quality (mean HSR) over time. This results in Campbell obtaining an overall score of 4,5 out of 10 and ranking 12 out of 25 in the Product Profile.
B1.1 Portfolio-level Results
| Average HSR (out of 5 stars) (sales- weighted) |
3 Countries included |
Range of global sales included |
Healthy products (HSR) |
Products suitable to market to children (WHO regional models) - UNSCORED |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.9 | Canada, Mexico, US | 75-80% | No. products assessed |
% products healthy (≥3.5 stars) |
% retail sales healthy 2019 (≥3.5 stars) – assessed countries only |
% estimated global retail sales healthy 2019 (≥3.5 stars) |
No. products assessed |
% products suitable |
% sales from suitable |
| 1158 | 49% | 42% | 45% | 1159 | 2% | 2% | |||
• A total of 1,158 products manufactured by Campbell, sold in 3 countries, covering 5 product categories, were included in this Product Profile (baby foods, plain tea and coffee were not assessed). The company’s sales-weighted mean HSR is 2.9 out of 5. ATNI turns this value into a score between 0 and 10, resulting in a mean healthiness score of 5.9 out of 10 for Campbell. The company ranks 7 out of 25 companies in this first scored element (B1.1).
• Overall, 49% of distinct products assessed were found to meet the HSR healthy threshold (HSR >=3.5). Together, these products accounted for an estimated 42% of Campbell retail sales of packaged food and beverages 2019 in the selected markets (excluding baby food, plain tea, and coffee). Assuming the products and markets included in the assessment are representative of the company’s overall global sales, ATNI estimates the company derived approximately 45 % of its global retail sales from healthy products in 2019.
WHO nutrient profiling models (unscored): Only 2% of products assessed were found to be of sufficient nutritional quality to market to children, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) regional nutrient profiling models. These products were estimated to generate 2% of the company’s sales in 2019. More information on this part of the assessment can be found in the Marketing section (Category D) of the Index.
B1.2. Product Category Results
| No. products analyzed |
% products healthy (HSR>=3.5) |
Company mean HSR |
Mean HSR for all companies selling this product category |
Company performance (rank in mean HSR compared to peers selling products in the same category) |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baked Goods | 126 | 63% | 3.2 | 2 | 1st out of 9 |
| Juice | 91 | 46% | 3.3 | 3.2 | 5th out of 8 |
| Sauces, Dressings and Condiments | 135 | 59% | 3.2 | 2.5 | 3rd out of 11 |
| Savoury Snacks | 331 | 28% | 2.5 | 2.2 | 3rd out of 8 |
| Soup | 475 | 57% | 3.3 | 2.5 | 3rd out of 8 |
• For Campbell, ‘Juice’ (91 products analyzed) and ‘Soup’ (475 products analyzed) were the companies best performing categories, receiving a score of 3.3 according to the HSR algorithm. The next best performing categories were ‘Baked goods’ and ‘Sauces, Dressings and Condiments, whereby 126 and 135 products were analyzed, respectively. Both categories obtained a mean HSR of 3.2. Savoury Snacks (2.5) had the lowest mean HSR of all product categories included for Campbells.
• For all of the 5 categories assessed, Campbell products perform better than the mean HSR of companies selling products in the same categories. The company performs best compared to peers in the ‘Baked Goods’ product category.
• Campbell scores 7.7 out of 10 in this second scored element (B1.2) and ranks 6 out of 25 companies. This is based on its ranking compared to peers within the five categories, using the scoring system set out in ATNI’s methodology.
B1.3. Change in mean HSR
| No. of products analyzed in 2018 |
No. of products analyzed in 2021 |
Sales weighted mean HSR 2018 |
Sales weighted mean HSR 2021 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mexico | 40 | 81 | 3.7 | 3.9 |
| USA | 937 | 933 | 3 | 2.9 |
| TOTAL | 977 | 1014 | 3 | 2.9 |
• Among the 18 companies for which this third scored element was applicable, Campbells showed a slight decrease in mean HSR between the 2018 and 2021 Product Profiles (mean HSR=3.0 to 2.9). The change in HSR score only takes into account the two countries included in both 2018 and 2021 assessments. For Campbell, the decrease observed in mean HSR between 2018 and 2021 is likely attributed to some key changes in category sales, such as an increase in the proportion of sales deriving from the ‘Savoury Snacks’ (from 15% to 41%), with a subsequent decrease in the proportion of sales deriving from healthier categories such as ‘Soup’ and ‘Juice’. This large change in the ‘Savoury Snacks’ category is likely a result of Campbell’s purchasing of Snyder’s-Lance in 2018.
• Adjusting scores by country sales weighted estimates (which gives more weight to company’s largest markets), Campbell achieves a decrease of 0.1 (mean HSR=3.0 to 2.9.) in mean HSR between 2018 and 2021 resulting in a score of 0 out of 10 (B1.3) on this element using the scoring system set out in ATNI’s methodology.