- The majority of Nestlé foods and beverages do not meet a “recognized definition of health”.
- Only 37% of its consumer food and drink products meet international health standards.
- The global food company acknowledged the problem in an internal presentation seen by the Financial Times.
- See more stories on the Insider business page.
More than 60% of Nestlé’s consumer food and drink products do not meet an internationally recognized health standard, according to internal company documents seen by the Financial Times.
“Some of our categories and products will never be ‘healthy’ no matter how much we renovate,” the company said in a presentation seen by executives of the world’s largest food conglomerate.
CEO Mark Schneider told Bloomberg in September that the company continues to invest in the safety of its products, but “confectionery and chocolate fulfill a deep human need and are going to be here to stay.”
The definition of “healthy” comes from the Australian Health Star Rating System, which rates products on a five-star scale and is used by international researchers, including the Access to Nutrition Foundation. A product must score at least 3.5 stars to be considered healthy.
Metrics like the Health Star system “allow consumers to make informed choices. However, they don’t capture everything,” a company spokesperson said in a statement to Insider. “About half of our sales are not covered by these systems. This includes categories such as infant nutrition, specialty health products and pet foods, which follow regulated nutritional standards.”
“We believe that a healthy diet means finding a balance between well-being and pleasure. It means having a little space for gourmet foods, consumed in moderation,” added the spokesperson.
The presentation highlighted statistics for some of the most unhealthy products produced and sold by brands owned by Nestlé.
One serving of Hot Pockets Pepperoni Pizza has 48% of the daily sodium intake, followed closely by DiGiorno’s Three Meat Crust Pizza, which is 40% sodium. To combine salty and sweet, Nestlé also offers a San Pellegrino orange drink with 7.1g of sugar per 100ml and Nesquik strawberry flavored milk powder with 14g of sugar in a 14g serving.
“Strawberry Nesquik is perfect for breakfast to get the kids ready for the day,” Nestlé says in its marketing text for the product.
“We have made significant improvements to our products … [but] our portfolio continues to underperform against external definitions of health in a landscape where regulatory pressure and consumer demands are skyrocketing, ”the presentation said.
Professor Marion Nestle (unrelated), who studies nutritional science at Cornell, told the FT that a healthy portfolio is likely out of reach for large publicly traded companies like Nestle.
“The job of food companies is to generate money for shareholders, and to generate it as quickly and as widely as possible,” she said. “They’re going to sell products that reach a mass audience and are bought by as many people as possible, that people want to buy, and that’s junk food.”
“Nestlé is a very intelligent company, at least according to my meetings with people who are in their science [departments] … but they have a real problem, “she added.” Scientists have been working for years trying to figure out how to reduce the salt and sugar content without changing the flavor profile and guess what, it’s hard to do. “