Shareholders in the food and drink sector have challenged CEOs at some of the industry’s largest companies – including Coca-Cola and Mondelez – to be more transparent about the healthiness of their products. “Health is a systemic risk that affects the whole economy,” said Tom Sanders, Senior ESG Analyst at UK-based pension scheme Nest. “Food and drink companies must take responsibility in helping manage these risks by being more transparent, using standards as an important first step.” The investors, coordinated by NGO ShareAction and collectively managing £2.34 trillion (US$2.94 trillion) in assets, asked targeted companies to adopt internationally-accepted nutrition standards for reporting the healthiness of their sales, highlighting their concern that an overreliance on sales of less healthy products promotes poor diets and sicker societies. This harms economic productivity and threatens long-term business success and financial returns, the investors said. The current lack of transparency hinders investors’ ability to fully assess their portfolio exposures to such risks. “It’s really encouraging to see the momentum building among the investment community to hold the food and drink sector to account for its impact on public health,” said Thomas Abrams, Co-head of Health at ShareAction. “By adopting a responsible investment approach to public health, investors can not only manage financial risks but also help more people to enjoy healthier lives for longer.” Recent research has shown that large food and drink producers are increasing their share of revenues from healthier products, but are still failing to embed nutrition into their business models.
