Nestle gets 35% of sales from foods considered unhealthy

BLOOMBERG 

Nestle SA said a third of its sales missed an independent definition of healthy as it applied a nutritional rating test across its portfolio.
The finding shows that Nestle has room to improve as it aims to be the top health and wellness food company. Nestle said that according to the Health Star Rating (HSR) system, 30% of the Swiss company’s portfolio is considered healthy and 35% unhealthy.
The remainder comes from petfood, infant formula and medical nutrition products, which were not tested as they’re designed to meet specific goals like helping kidney function.
Food companies have been under pressure to report in accordance with independent government-approved measures of how nutritious their portfolios are, rather than their own internal metrics, even though the industry has not settled on a single scale.
Nestle decided to use the HSR system, widely used in Australia and New Zealand, which rates products on a sale from half a star to five stars. A score of 3.5 stars or above is considered healthy.
The ratings are based on the product’s energy, saturated fat, total sugars, sodium, protein, dietary fibre and fruit, vegetable, nut and legume
content. Products like confectionery or salty sauces score lower on the scale, while low fat, low salt and sugar items including plain coffee and waters score higher.
The increased transparency helps investors understand how exposed companies are to efforts to curb obesity, for example through advertising bans. It also amplifies the pressure on companies to reformulate products to meet independent nutritional criteria.