BUSINESS

Worries Over Nestlé Products As Health Star Rating, HSR, Indicates Low Score

<h4>Worries Over Nestlé Products<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> has gathered that Nestlé&comma; world’s biggest food company&comma; and makers of MILO&comma; Maggi including and many other global food brands&comma; has acknowledged that the nutritional value of less than half its portfolio of mainstream food and drinks can be considered &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;healthy&comma;” based on the HSR health score just released&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The remaining 50&percnt; of its products failed to meet the standards of the latest health star rating &lpar;HSR&rpar; system&comma; which uses a five-star rating to score foods based on their nutritional value<br &sol;>&NewLine;The annual report of the world’s largest food company showed 54&percnt; of its food and beverages by revenue — excluding products such as pet food&comma; baby food&comma; vitamins and specialized medical nutrition — was rated lower than 3&period;5 under the widely used health star rating &lpar;HSR&rpar; system&period; This is despite pressure on packaged food makers to make their products more nutritious&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Foods with a lower score are not considered to be &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;generally healthy”&comma; according to the not-for-profit Access to Nutrition Initiative&period; HSR takes into account the level of saturated fats&comma; sugar and salt within individual products&comma; as well as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;positive nutrients” such as fibre&comma; fruit&comma; and vegetables&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Nestlé products include<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;vanguardngr&period;com&sol;"> Smarties chocolates&comma; Nesquik&comma; Maggi&comma; Nido&comma; Golden Morn&comma; Nescafé coffee&comma; and many others<&sol;a>&period; Nestle released the figures following pressure from some shareholders and campaigners for the industry to be more transparent about the nutritional value of its products&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The Switzerland-based group said it was &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;setting a standard for transparency” and was the first in the sector &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;to report on the nutritional value of its entire global portfolio”&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Holly Gabriel&comma; a campaigner at responsible investment charity Share Action&comma; welcomed the disclosure but said it &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;worryingly shows the company is still far too reliant on the sale of less healthy food and drink products”&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Nestlé chief executive Mark Schneider told analysts last month that the group had made &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;already a lot of progress” in reducing sodium&comma; sugar and saturated fats&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The food maker said it had recently reduced sodium in products including Mahler Seafood Creamy Soup&comma; introduced more zero-sugar variants of Coffee Mate and launched more plant-based foods&comma; including Garden Gourmet Schnitzel&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;But industry executives have argued there are limits to how much they can push healthier products&comma; especially as inflation has squeezed consumer spending and pushed up the industry’s costs&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It’s clear that while the work goes on&comma; there are limits&comma;” Schneider said&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Enjoyment-related categories &lbrack;such as confectionery&rsqb; will not be turned into health-related categories&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;20121" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-20121" style&equals;"width&colon; 300px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img class&equals;"size-medium wp-image-20121" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2023&sol;03&sol;Nestle-300x169&period;png" alt&equals;"Worries Over Nestlé Products " width&equals;"300" height&equals;"169" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-20121" class&equals;"wp-caption-text"><strong>Nestle products<&sol;strong><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>In its annual report&comma; Nestlé broke down its net sales into four categories&colon; 17 percent came from products with an HSR score of less than 1&period;5&comma; 18 percent from those scoring between 1&period;5 and 3&period;5&comma; and 30 percent with a rating of at least 3&period;5&period; The remaining 35 percent came from pet care and other products for which HSR is not applicable&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The data was compiled by the company and audited by the third-party Bureau Veritas&period; Nestlé disclosed the figures for the first time on Tuesday&comma; although the Financial Times reported about two years ago on an internal company presentation that also showed a high proportion of its portfolio scored lower than 3&period;5 on the scale&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Mark Wijne&comma; research director at the Access to Nutrition Initiative&comma; also said the disclosure was &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;very welcome” but showed companies such as Nestlé could and should do more to innovate and promote healthier alternatives&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Nestlé added that it had &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;come a long way and now wants to go further&period; We have committed to setting a global target for the healthier part of our portfolio later this year&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;Packaged food groups are under scrutiny over the extent to which they are responsible for a global obesity problem&period; In an attempt to improve diets&comma; some governments have introduced taxes on high-sugar products and implemented restrictions on advertising and sales promotions&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Meanwhile&comma; other major food and drinks companies in the country are all likely to also score poorly in the health ranking&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The likes of Unilever&comma; Cadbury&comma; Coca-Cola&comma; Friesland WAMCO&comma; NBL&comma; Indomie &lpar;Dufil Foods&rpar; and many others produce food and drinks containing high amounts of sodium&comma; sugar and saturated fats&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The revelation comes as Nestlé and other food makers face increasing pressure from regulators and consumers to improve the healthiness of its products and reduce obesity and chronic diseases&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;For now&comma; food and beverage companies will continue to lean on clever advertising and public relations to tell only one side of their stories&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Source&colon; PRonomics<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;

Openlife Reporter

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