Research from the Netherlands-based Access to Nutrition Foundation (ATNF) suggests that large, international food and drink companies are not doing enough to make their products healthier.
ATNF’s The Access to Nutrition Index, published today (23 May), ranks 22 large companies in the sector on what they are doing to reduce poor health due to poor dietary patterns.
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The researchers analysed more than 23,000 products in nine countries. They looked at things like the salt, sugar and saturated fats content of these products.
But its findings showed less than a third of the analysed products were qualified as ‘healthy’. The researchers also found the companies are still too often marketing unhealthy products for children and not make healthier products affordable.
But there have been improvements since the previous Access to Nutrition Index in 2016, the Foundation noted. The food industry is making products more nutritious, provide more information about ingredients and nutritional value in products, and supports educational programmes.
In terms of the rankings, Nestle tops the table with a score of 6.8 out of 10. Unilever and Danone are second and third with scores of 6.7 and 6.3 respectively. Dutch company FrieslandCampina saw the most improvement over the past two years, improving its score from 2.8 in 2016 to 6.0 this year and climbing to fourth place in the ranking.
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By GlobalDataAccording to the index, a third of the world’s population is either overweight or malnourished.
Responding to today’s findings, Dr Corinna Hawkes, director of the Centre for Food Policy at London’s City University, tweeted that there is a “clear need to do better”.
And she called for national regulations to be introduced after ATNF research revealed the six largest baby food companies continue to contravene the International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes.
The Access to Nutrition Foundation is an independent non-profit organisation dedicated to objectively assessing and improving the contribution the private sector makes to addressing global nutrition challenges.
