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Access to Nutrition Initiative gets industry backing to use Nutrient Profile Models to better assess food ‘healthiness’

The Access to Nutrition Initiative (ATNI) is spearheading a new project to standardise the assessment of food healthiness to better monitor the industry's transition to more nutritious product portfolios.

In research aimed at harmonising this approach, ATNI’s latest report proposes new action, calling on food and beverage companies to measure their product portfolios against at least one of the three Nutrient Profile Models (NPMs)

“Out of nearly 400 NPMs, three models were found to be the most appropriate for reporting on product portfolio healthiness: the Health Star Rating (HSR), Nutri-Score, and UK NPM,” the report said.

“A high level of agreement was observed between these three models when assessing 17 different food product categories.”

Additionally, the report, entitled Sector Alignment on the Use of Nutrient Profile Models, recommends the use of new reporting guidelines, proposed to better gauge and compare the healthiness of their products and the sales of ‘healthier’ vs. ‘less healthy’ products.

One in five deaths attributed to a poor diet

The report, which included input from the world's top 30 food and beverage manufacturers, aims to address the widespread impacts of poor diet, linking it to one in five deaths globally, rising healthcare costs, and a 3-11% reduction in GDP across several countries.

Current estimates identify up to 400 different NPMs used to measure the healthiness of food, making the process of defining a particular food or beverage as healthy, and assessing and comparing food companies’ commitments toward healthier portfolios, extremely difficult.

The ATNI report, developed through three rounds of Delphi research – a structured approach to achieving expert consensus – outlines key recommendations for improving reporting methodology. These include providing detailed information on the NPM guidelines applied, based on the alignment and agreement of participants.

The recommendations also urge for greater disclosure of data sources, describe methods for handling missing values, specify product inclusions and exclusions, and report any deviations from the NPM guidelines.

Additional proposals cover the audit process, recommending it be conducted or validated by an impartial third party following a standardised protocol.

Finally, the report calls for reporting results across the entire global portfolio, broken down by product category, and, where relevant, by specific region or country.

Food firms advised to follow guidelines to better gauge product healthiness and sales

“The NPM Delphi initiative received strong support from a diverse range of stakeholders and many participants expressed continued interest in engaging in the next phases of this work,” the report concluded.

“ATNI and its investor partners call on companies to benchmark their product portfolios against one or more of the three NPMs listed and to utilise the proposed Reporting Guidelines so that they can better gauge and compare the healthiness of their products and sales.”

A total of 86 participants from 14 countries, representing various stakeholders from the food industry, investors, academic experts, and NGOs, contributed to the research.

Commenting on the report’s future implications, The Food Foundation, a UK-based charity involved in food policy and business practice change, said they, “recognised that the global food and beverage sector has a crucial role to play in shaping healthy diets and was committed to driving the food industry to produce and provide healthier products to consumers.”

“Following the results of an Access to Nutrition Initiative-led multi-stakeholder alignment initiative in 2024, we ask companies to use the HSR, Nutri-Score, and/or the UK NPM to articulate a definition of ‘healthy’ and publicly disclose sales from healthy product and report annually on sales weighted results for their entire portfolio and the percentage of sales from 'healthier' products.”

Unilever takes lead in using government-approved NPMs alongside internal metrics

Thomas Abrams, Co-Head of Health at ShareAction, a non-profit organisation advocating for responsible investment, said: “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 … provide clarity … on how healthy their products are, and how heavily dependent they are on sales of less healthy products – or even better use all three like Unilever does.”

In early 2022, Unilever announced a new benchmark for public reporting about the healthiness of its food taking the decision to measure product sales against government-approved Nutrient Profile Models as well as its own internal standards.

“We share a common belief in the importance of having an ambitious long-term strategy for nutrition and health, and that companies should publish ambitious targets to deliver against,” said Hanneke Faber, Unilever’s President of Foods & Refreshment, back in March of that year.

“I am confident that with these new initiatives, we will set a new benchmark for nutrition transparency in our industry and accelerate our positive impact on public health.”