Investors ask food giants to ramp up health performance

A group of investors representing £3 trillion in assets have called on some of the world’s biggest food firms to ramp up their health performance, after an investigation found they were lagging by setting their own nutrition targets.

According to reports, the investor group, which boasts big names including Legal & General Investment Management and BMO Global Asset Management, has written to the boards of Nestle, Kellogg’s, Danone and Kraft Heinz calling for more transparency and ambition in how they gauge the healthiness of their products.

The letters from the investor group have outlined the stark difference in performance between companies’ health profile against their own definitions, compared with an independent assessment by the Access to Nutrition Initiative (ATNI), the leading benchmarking organisation for food companies and their investors.

Calls from the investors come after Marmite-maker Unilever reportedly was forced into overhauling the way it measures the health of its products earlier this year, after accusations its health targets did not stack up against government guidelines.

Activist shareholder group ShareAction said health was a material risk factor that boards needed to address fast.

“Investors need companies to use standardised health metrics to determine their exposure to regulatory risk and their position relative to competitors on this issue,” said Ignacio Vazquez, Senior Manager at ShareAction.

“In line with their ambition to be leaders in nutrition and health, we are calling on these food companies to follow Unilever in committing to greater disclosure around their sales of healthier products and to increase their ambitions in this area.”