Access to Nutrition Initiative (ATNI) has called on investors and food companies to improve their health reporting by using three nutrient profile models (NPMs) identified in its latest research.
The report surveyed NPMs, which are used to measure the healthiness of food products and portfolios to provide information to investors and the public. It found that Health Star Rating (HSR), Nutri-Score and the UK NPM (UK NPM) are the most appropriate for future investor reporting. A total of 86 individuals from 14 countries – including representatives from the food industry, investors, academic experts and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) – participated in the research.
The research helped to clarify the steps required to define and measure healthy foods in the absence of a global standard. As a result, investor organisations, including those in ATNI’s Investors in Nutrition and Health (AINH) have expressed their commitment to use the three NPMS to ramp up industry efforts.
The report stated: “It is critical for the investor community to prioritise healthy diets as an integral part of sustainable investing. However, there is no agreed-upon way to define and measure the healthiness of food portfolios, which hampers progress in improving the healthiness of food environments.
“Without a globally accepted definition of what makes a food or beverage healthy, assessing and comparing food companies’ commitments towards healthier portfolios is difficult.”
Thomas Abrams, co-head of health at ShareAction, added: “Poor diets drive one in five deaths globally. Yet, the world’s biggest food manufacturers, who have a huge influence on the food we all eat, continue to make excuses as to why they can’t do more on health.
“We welcome the findings of this new report: there are no more excuses for companies who fail to be transparent. We now have clear consensus amongst businesses, investors and scientists over standards for defining what can be counted as healthy.
“We strongly urge food and drinks makers to use at least one of the three nutrient profile models recommended in the report to provide clarity to the public and investors on how healthy their products are, and how heavily dependent they are on the sales of less healthy products – or even better use all three like Unilever does.”
