Unilever, Kellogg’s and Kraft Heinz dismiss WASSH report as “misleading” after unhealthy product claims

06 Mar 2023 --- The World Action on Salt, Sugar and Health (WASSH) has released a report uncovering high sales of unhealthy foods from five prominent industry players: Unilever, Nestlé, Danone, Kraft Heinz and Kellogg’s, across Australia, France and Mexico. However, the companies argue that the report is misleading, using a fraction of products to base its results on.

NutritionInsight speaks with WASSH, Unilever, Kellogg’s and Kraft Heinz about the report and its claims that the companies are “over-reliant on the sales of unhealthy food despite each claiming to be active in improving the healthfulness of their products,” and how they work to improve nutritional contents.

“This research has revealed the true extent of the problem. Last year, we surveyed these same companies in the UK, finding that over half of their flagship products are ‘unhealthy.’ This new research paints an even worse picture on a global scale: in the surveyed countries, up to 80% of these companies’ portfolios are unhealthy, with high levels of salt, sugar and saturated fat,” Hattie Burt, policy and communications officer at WASSH, tells us.

However, a spokesperson from Unilever maintains that “the assessment by WASSH is incomplete and misleading as it is based on a small subset of our portfolio, consisting of just three countries and 6-20% of the individual products we sell in these countries.”

The report is incomplete and misleading as it is based on 6-20% of the individual products sold in the three countries, says Unilever.To which Burt responds, “their [Unilever] full assessment in their report includes foods in food service among other places, basically anything they sell anywhere in that country. Hence, why it does not align with our methodology.”

“We don’t have access to that information, nor did Unilever share it. Our research focused on food and drink via company websites and major retailers’ sites. These are products that consumers are available to purchase,” Burt adds.

Common goal?
The report includes 2,346 products measured against government-endorsed definitions of healthier food and drinks and front-of-pack labelings – Nutri-Score, Health Star Rating and warning labels – and found the majority of products to classify as unhealthy.

Danone was the exception among the five companies, as 35% of its products were classified as unhealthy. Australia was the country with the highest proportion of unhealthy product production (65%), followed by France (63%) and Mexico (60%).

“We’re committed to providing consumers with healthier choices, reducing salt, sugar and calories while introducing healthier variants. In October 2022, we set updated, stretching nutritional targets for our global portfolio using Unilever’s Science-Based Nutrition Criteria,” says Unilever.

“In our assessment, which is publicly available, we have reported on our full global portfolio against six different local Nutrient Profile Models, covering more than 40,000 products in 16 countries, including Brazil, Mexico and France. The results show a wide range of outcomes and highlight a fundamental issue – that there is currently no single, global definition of what constitutes ‘healthy,’” Unilever details. 

The company says it encourages WASSH and other stakeholders to work on one global standard to drive nutritional improvement and incentivize reformulation at scale to enhance the impact on public health.

Investing in improvementWASSH and other stakeholders are encouraged to work on one global standard to drive nutritional improvement.
Kris Bahner, a spokesperson at Kellogg’s, tells us that “Kellogg’s is the original well-being, plant-based food company, and we continue to fuel our portfolio with good-for-you options. Our approach to well-being supports healthy and sustainable diets with foods that meet people’s physical, emotional and societal needs.”

“We believe the findings of the recent WASSH study misrepresent our efforts. At Kraft Heinz, we are committed to the health and nutrition of consumers. Our diverse portfolio of products is designed to fit into any dietary pattern while providing a variety of choices that meet different lifestyle needs and preferences,” Andrea Budelli, Global ESG Officer at Kraft Heinz, tells us.

“With health and nutrition in mind, we set several related goals, including achieving salt and sugar reduction targets – namely, reducing sugar in our products by more than 60 million pounds globally by 2025.” 

Budelli continues to say that Kraft Heinz works to improve the nutritional content of its product portfolio through investing in sustainable sourcing, partnerships with academics and its nutrition science team, product innovation and technology.

“These investments help us navigate technical challenges that arise in product renovation. For example, certain ingredients, including salt, are present in products for reasons beyond taste, such as for food safety or the consumer sensory expectation,” he adds.

“By relying solely on industry’s willingness and without government enforcement, we will unlikely see a meaningful shift,” says Brown at WASSH.Beyond nutritional profiles
Mhairi Brown, policy, public affairs and international projects lead for WASSH, stresses that improving the nutritional content of food and drinks by reformulating recipes with less salt, sugar and saturated fat is “by far the most important strategy that any company should make to improve public health.”

“However, by relying solely on industry’s willingness and without government enforcement, we will unlikely see a meaningful shift. We need to see government leadership across the sector, with strict measures to include mandatory targets for reformulation,” Brown details.

Budelli adds that addressing public health issues such as malnutrition in all its forms requires a collaborative effort with governments, the private sector and civil society. 

“We are always looking for partners to help us and the industry evolve, including participating in discussions around the development of a government-endorsed model that incentivizes the reformulation of products to enhance the impact on public health,” he says.

“We continue to evolve our portfolio, ensuring choice across our foods, including options with less sugar, sodium and saturated fat, as well as innovating foods with more fiber, protein and micronutrients. For example, since 2007, we’ve reduced the average amount of sodium per serving in our ready-to-eat cereals in our core markets globally by 29% and 80% of our cereals are a source of fiber,” Bahner notes.

Nestlé tells NutritionInsight that it will not comment on the report. Danone did not respond in time for publication.

By Beatrice Wihlander