Nestlé activists to push for more healthy offerings amid sugar scandal

A group of company investors, that includes Legal and General Investment Management (LGIM), with investments amounting to a total of 1.68 trillion dollars in assets (under management) support the resolution which will be voted on at Nestlé’s Annual General Meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland.

“As Nestlé has consistently failed to set out how it will shift the balance of its sales towards healthier food options, concerned investors have been left with no option but to bring forward a resolution at the company’s AGM in April,” said Catherine Howarth, Chief Executive at ShareAction, the NGO that coordinated the resolution.

Last year, Nestlé announced new health targets, pledging to increase sales of more nutritious products by 2030 by 50%, which, according to the shareholders is not ambitious enough.

The resolution calls for an internationally recognised target to be set to significantly reduce the sales of unhealthy foods worldwide.

Nestlé’s webpage reads that “driven by our company purpose – enhancing the quality of life and contributing to a healthier future – we are focusing our efforts on ensuring that our product brands enable healthier lives”.

Howarth explained in a press release that, despite the company’s claims, three-quarters of its global sales are unhealthy products that contain high levels of salt, sugar and fats.

The investors’ call comes amid a scandal on high sugar baby food sold by Nestlé in low- and middle-income countries revealed in an investigation by Public Eye and the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN).

The company controls 20% of the world’s baby food market which amounts to nearly $70 billion (€656 billion). In low- and middle-income countries, Nestlé’s baby food brands made more than $2.5 billion (€2.3 billion) in 2022, according to Euromonitor.

The investigation shows that these baby food brands promoted as healthy and “key to supporting young children’s development” contain high levels of added sugar.

However, the most worrying part is the difference in the amount of sugar in the products depending on the country as the investigation concludes that “for Nestlé, not all babies are equal when it comes to added sugar”.

The research shows that, in Switzerland, Nestlé promotes its biscuit-flavoured cereals for babies aged from six months with the claim “no added sugar”, while in Senegal and South Africa, cereals with the same flavour contain 6 grams of added sugar per serving.

They analysed 115 products sold by Nestlé in its main markets in Africa, Asia and Latin America and found that at least 94% of them contained added sugar. Researchers determined the exact amount of added sugar for 67 of these products, which, on average, was almost 4 grams per serving, around one sugar cube.

They found the highest amount – 7.3 grams per serving – in a product for six-month-old babies in the Philippines.

ShareAction warned in their press release that Nestlé’s present business model relies too heavily on unhealthy food sales and that “there is a human cost to failing to adapt the current business model”.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends avoiding the consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks and foods with added sugar in the first year of life.

WHO also advises that added sugar should be forbidden in all baby foods and states that total sugar should be limited to 15% of energy intake.