Major food and beverage producers are increasing their share of revenues from healthier products, according to the Access to Nutrition initiative (ATNI), but are still failing to embed nutrition into their business models. ATNI’s fifth global index found that 34% of overall sales made by 30 of the sector’s largest firms were derived from healthier products, rising from 27% in 2021 and 21% in 2018. Just under a third (31%) of more than 52,000 products analysed in the benchmark were categorised as healthy using the Health Star Rating system. The ATNI is lobbying for food and beverage manufacturers to derive at least half their sales from healthy products by 2030. The index also revealed that 11 out of 30 companies had set age thresholds for product marketing, while nine had some form of affordable nutrition strategy. However, the ATNI said the healthiness of product portfolios remained low overall with no company fully prohibiting the marketing of unhealthy foods to children under 18 across all channels. It also reported that the share of ‘less healthy’ products marketed by the 30 assessed companies is higher in low- and middle-income countries than in high-income countries. Ten of the firms surveyed now use an internationally recognised nutrient profiling model to annually report on portfolio healthiness, with six doing so as percentages of global sales. The ATNI called on investors to make greater use of existing nutrition frameworks to assess investee firms’ performance, to file shareholder resolutions to improve reporting of nutrition-related metrics, and to use their influence with government, ESG data providers and industry bodies to mainstream nutrition into voluntary and mandatory reporting standards. “With key players failing to show enough progress, investors are demanding greater transparency. Companies should heed shareholders concerns and commit to reporting the healthiness of their sales in line with internationally-accepted nutrition standards,” said Thomas Abrams, Co-head of Health at ShareAction.
