Are the Efforts of Large Companies Towards Healthier Eating Enough?
Nestlé Company has made progressive changes to reduce sugar in most of its food and beverages.
The Woman Post | Catalina Mejía
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In an internal note of the company published by The Financial Times, the company did mention that despite their efforts to improve products, they would never be healthy.
Nestlé is a company that was founded by Henri Nestlé, a pharmacist born in Germany more than 150 years ago. It was born as an Anglo-Swiss condensed milk company. In the year 1866, they opened their first factory to produce condensed milk. Some of its most popular brands include Kit Kat, La Lechera, Nesquik, Nescafé, Chocapic, and Fitness cereals.
Widely recognized for their cereals, beverages, chocolates, and ice cream, Nestlé has been historically questioned by different media due to the poor nutritional values of their products. The company recently acknowledged that more than 60% of its products are not healthy. This revelation was contained in an internal document from Nestlé, that was known and made public by The Financial Times. In the mentioned document, the Swiss Company stated that regardless of the modifications introduced to their products, they would never be healthy.
Also read: CONSUMPTION OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES HELPS OUR MENTAL HEALTH
In many places of the world, campaigns have promoted a healthy diet, with reduced amounts of sodium and sugar as a way to prevent diseases that affect millions of people such as diabetes and obesity. As a response, several companies from the food industry have made efforts to reduce fats and carbohydrates in their products. Nestlé also played its part by developing a strategy to improve the nutritional content of its products. The company also publicly stated that during the last 7 years they reduced 14% to 15% of the sugar and sodium content of their products.
It is worth highlighting that according to The Financial Times, only 37% of food and beverages of the company, excluding pet food and special nutrition products obtained a score above 3.5 from 5, in the Australian Health Star Rating System. On average almost 63% of Nestlé food products did not even obtain a score of 3.5. Regarding beverages, 96% obtained a score below the expected for a healthy product. The percentage for sweets and ice cream was even more surprising, 99% of products obtained a score which is below healthy. Fort the dairy products, 60% obtained a score considered as healthy.
The company has recognized that although they still have room for improvement in terms of the nutritional values of their products, they are focused on developing a portfolio of healthy and tasty products.
