The influence of the food & beverage industry is growing. It has both the responsibility and the opportunity to embed nutrition into its core business, improving product offerings for consumers. Actioning the Index recommendations will facilitate food & beverage manufacturers to play a more vital part in addressing pressing nutrition-related concerns and ensuring that a healthy, affordable diet is available to all. ATNI and its partners hope that the India Index 2023 provides useful data and analyses that support companies, investors, civil society and policymakers to make informed steps towards improving nutrition in India.

Read the full Index report

Sales of packaged food and beverages in India have surged by 15% year-on-year since 2011, outperforming total sales of food. Meanwhile sales of highly processed foods typically high in fat, salt or sugar (HFSS) are projected to double by 2030. Amid these trends, India is witnessing its highest levels of micronutrient deficiencies and obesity.

ATNI’s analysis of the healthiness of 20 of the country’s largest F&B manufacturers’ products shows there have been incremental improvements since its first analysis in 2016. These trends stress the urgency, opportunity and responsibility for food companies, investors and public health and food authorities in India to ensure processed packaged foods meet healthiness standards. Doing so would enable consumers to follow dietary guidelines and eat better while simultaneously preventing millions of cases of obesity and micronutrient deficiency.

The Indian Context

ATNI was established in 2013 to transform markets for nutrition and measure and drive forward private sector accountability. ATNI assessed the largest food & beverage manufacturers in India in both 2016 and 2020 on their contribution to healthier diets for all Indians.

The Index can be used by a range of different stakeholders to drive progress including:

• Companies and industry associations to show how their practices can be improved, compare with their peers, and incentivize progress
• Responsible investors as a tool for decision-making on investing in and engaging with companies
• Policymakers to help identify priority areas for regulation and government-led action
• Civil society as an evidence-base for engagement with industry as well as with consumers.

Read the Executive Summary

Companies can improve their product portfolios leading to at least half of their portfolio (sales and products) meeting healthy thresholds by 2030 by:

• Adopting specific, measurable, and timebound targets to reduce nutrients of concern and increase positive ingredients across their portfolio in India.
• Using an (inter-)nationally recognized NPM to measure, define and report on the healthiness of products in their portfolio.
• Publicly disclosing on an annual basis the percentage of their product portfolio that meets these healthiness criteria.

Companies are encouraged to fully integrate nutrition considerations into their commercial business functions by:

• Assigning formal responsibility for the success of their nutrition strategy to the highest levels of seniority within the company in India
• Developing specific strategies to increase sales of ‘healthier’ products relative to unhealthy products, through pricing, distribution, and marketing investments.
• Setting and reporting against a target to increase sales of products defined as ‘healthier’ relative to overall sales.

• Adopt and publish an affordability strategy to deliver more affordable, and accessible products and improve lower-income consumers’ diets in India.
• Develop and publish a comprehensive responsible marketing policy that covers all media channels and audiences, including for children under the age of 18.
• Ensure they develop workforce nutrition programs, including healthy food at work, nutrition education, nutrition-related health check-ups and breastfeeding support with meaningful and quantifiable outcomes.

• Adopt and publish a comprehensive nutrition labelling policy in alignment with recent regulations including front-of-pack information, back-of-pack information and how label information is comprehensively addressed online.
• Adopt a responsible advocacy policy that extends to cover any third parties advocating on behalf of the company. It should include commitments to conduct themselves responsibly; be transparent about their identity and intentions; only present valid, independent, and representative evidence; and consider the wider public interest and public health in their efforts.

As shareholders, investors play a significant role in shaping food companies’ governance, strategy and disclosure practices.

• First, investors can make use of existing nutrition frameworks such as ATNI’s Investor Expectations on Nutrition, Diets and Health using this to integrate nutrition into responsible investment strategies.
• Second, investors can use the findings of this Index to drive companies’ progress on nutrition in India through various investment strategies, calling for transparency and standardization of companies’ reporting across nutrition metrics.

Read more about ATNI’s work with investors

• First, a transparent definition of processed foods and and NPM would help align the sector.
• Second, global evidence on the effectiveness of fiscal incentives and health tax models is growing and could be deployed in India.
• Third, clear and transparent labelling guidelines that incorporate the definition of highly processed foods and FOP labelling should be established. Effective monitoring of these labelling guidelines should also be established to ensure compliance.
• Lastly, environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing policies should integrate nutrition where appropriate.

Read the full list of recommendations

The Index methodology deploys 58 indicators across seven categories on which companies are scored. Each category is weighted according to the relative impact it is considered to have on diets of consumers across India, building on evidence generated from ATNI’s 10-year Index experience.

Read the methodology

For this Index, ATNI placed a greater focus on assessing nutritional quality of products in companies’ portfolios, formal targets, strategies, and policies, rather than broad commitments and general statements.

Read the Product Profile Report

The India Index 2023 is being supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). This report was produced by the India Index team, consisting of: Babs Ates, Bo-Jane Woods, Brenda de Kok, Elena Schmider, Freddie von Kaufman, Greg S. Garrett, Mark Wijne, and Will Sharp. The ATNI team drew on the expertise and advice of the ATNI India Index Expert Group (N. Arlappa, Meetu Kapur, Tarun Vij, and Dr. Rajan Sanka), ATNI consultant Vivek Arora’s close engagement throughout the ATNI development process has been a source of invaluable guidance. This report benefited greatly from his input. The views expressed in this report, however, do not necessarily reflect the views of the group’s members or their institution. ATNI would also like to thank our partners Dr. Elizabeth Dunford from The George Institute for Global Health for research, Kummer & Herman and Studio September for design, Wren Media for editing, 73Bit for setting up the data platform and Kaizzen for communications.

Without limiting any of the foregoing and to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no event shall Access to Nutrition Foundation, nor any of its respective affiliates, The George Institute, Euromonitor International, Innova Market Insights, or contributors to or collaborators on the Index, have any liability regarding any of the Information contained in this report for any direct, indirect, special, punitive, consequential (including lost profits) or any other damages even if notified of the possibility of such damages. The foregoing shall not exclude or limit any liability that may not by applicable law be excluded or limited.

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