[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] A leaked internal document revealing that a significant portion of products from Nestl?, the world's largest food company, are unhealthy is expected to cause a stir.
On the 31st of last month (local time), a major foreign media outlet obtained and reported on an internal Nestl? document that was accessible only to Nestl?'s top executives this year. The document states that most Nestl? products do not meet Australia's health food classification standards.
Australia classifies whether a product is healthy into five grades based on nutritional content and other factors. Australia bases its grading on research conducted by international organizations such as the Access to Nutrition Foundation.
Nestl? explained in the document that a grade of 3.5 or higher in Australia's health food classification standards is considered the benchmark for healthy products.
The document revealed that few Nestl? products meet the 3.5 grade or higher. It was confirmed that only 37% of Nestl?'s sales come from food and beverage products classified as healthy with a grade of 3.5 or above. The remaining 63% of sales come from products classified as unhealthy.
Excluding coffee, 96% of beverages and 99% of snacks and ice cream fell below the 3.5 grade. On the other hand, 82% of bottled water products and 60% of dairy products met the 3.5 grade standard.
Nestl? stated that this analysis excluded supplements, pet products, coffee, and infant products, so the analysis covered about half of Nestl?'s entire product range.
John Cox, an analyst at financial services company Kepler Cheuvreux, explained, "If products such as supplements were included, the proportion of products classified as unhealthy would have been much lower." He added, "Based on 2021 estimates, snacks, ice cream, and pizza account for 28% of Nestl?'s sales. Considering this, it is not surprising that only 37% of products were classified as healthy."
Following the report, Nestl? announced plans to completely revise its strategy to produce nutritious and healthy products.
Nestl? stated, "Over the past 20 years, we have significantly reduced the sugar and sodium content in our products, especially by about 15% in the last seven years alone." It added, "We have made efforts to create healthy products and have made considerable progress, but with increasing regulatory demands and consumer expectations, we still fall short of external evaluation standards."
It is known that Nestl? plans to revise its internal regulations on product nutritional content and disclose them this year.
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