An NGO report revealed that the world’s 30 major food and beverage companies are selling products in low-income countries that are less healthy compared to wealthier markets, including India.
The Global Access Nutrition Index published by the non-profit group Access to Nutrition Initiative (ATNi), evaluated 52,414 products from companies like Nestlé, PepsiCo and Unilever as part of a global index. The index was first released in 2021, but this year is the first time it split the assessment into low and high-income countries.
The Health Star Rating (HSR) system, used in Australia and New Zealand, ranks products on a scale of 0 to 5 stars, with higher scores indicating healthier options. A product scoring above 3.5 stars is considered to be a healthier choice. But, while food products by these MNCs in high-income countries showed an average score of 2.3, in low-income countries, this score was 1.8.
MNCs like Unilever, Coca-Cola, Mondelez and PepsiCo are prominent players in markets like India, where they derive 11-38% of their sales from healthier products. However, this falls short of ATNi’s goal of having 50% of sales come from healthier offerings by 2030. Among the companies assessed, only 16% of Unilever’s products met the healthier threshold, while PepsiCo’s was 28%, Nestlé’s 25%, and Mondelez’s just 10%.
Mark Wijne, ATNi’s fresearch director told Reuters that “It’s very clear that these companies are not offering their healthier products in the poorest countries, where they are more active and described it as a wake-up call for governments in these countries.”
ATNi classified countries like Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Tanzania and Vietnam as low- and lower-middle-income countries, where food systems are particularly vulnerable to unhealthy dietary shifts.
The report also highlighted that consumption of processed foods is a key factor contributing to rising obesity rates and diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs). According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a billion people live with obesity worldwide, and the World Bank (WB) estimates that as much as 70 per cent of the world’s overweight people live in middle and low-income countries.
“We have committed to grow our sales of more nutritious foods, as well as guiding people towards more balanced diets,” Nestle stated in response to questions from Reuters. The company also mentioned efforts to fortify products to bridge nutrient gaps in developing countries.
An analysis of 150 Nestlé items sold in “lower-income countries” served as the basis for this report. The report also found that no company has a policy to completely prohibit marketing unhealthy foods to children under 18 years across all channels, as recommended by the World Health Organization.
