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We have a bold ambition to transform the food system. Through our Future Foods strategy we’re offering healthier foods and beverages, including products that provide positive nutrition through micronutrients and fortification, and more plant-based foods. We’re also encouraging people to choose healthier diets. And by working with partners, we’re tackling the complex and interconnected environmental issues facing our food system.
*Please refer to the relevant target for more information on this metric.
Through the Vegetarian Butcher, our vegan and non-dairy ice creams, and Hellmann’s vegan mayonnaise, we are expanding our range of plant-based products.
We are fortifying our foods with vitamins and minerals to increase positive nutrition.
Although we made good progress, we fell slightly short of our target due to supply chain challenges and raw material shortages which slowed down reformulation of our products.
We’re making changes to reduce sugar across our Ice Cream portfolio.
We are limiting calories in our Ice Cream portfolio without compromising on taste.
Although we made good progress, we fell slightly short of our target due to supply chain challenges and raw material shortages which slowed down reformulation.
We are committed to offering more plant-based meat substitutes and dairy alternatives. To better reflect our plant-based strategy and sustainability agenda, we have broadened the scope of our target to include plant-based products in categories which have traditionally used animal-derived ingredients, such as bouillons (a). Our target is to achieve sales of plant-based products of €1.5 billion per annum by 2025. In 2022, sales from our plant-based products were €1.2 billion – principally through The Vegetarian Butcher, our vegan and non-dairy ice cream range, and Hellmann’s vegan mayonnaise.
The Vegetarian Butcher is our ‘plant-based meat’ brand, with all products made from soy and wheat. It is available in over 55 countries and is capitalising on partnerships with quick service restaurants such as Starbucks, Subway, Domino’s, and Burger King – where we were named Global Direct Supplier of the Year.
Our non-dairy, plant-based ice cream business represents 8% of Ice Cream’s turnover and includes our newly launched Magnum Vegan Mini Classics. We also introduced a new vegan Carte D’Or Professional dessert range in several European markets.
Our Hellmann’s Vegan Mayo is a plant-based alternative to our traditional Hellmann’s mayonnaise. It is now available in 33 markets, including India where we recently launched egg-free mayonnaise alongside traditional mayonnaise.
We are not only making plant-based foods and ice cream with great taste, texture and nutrition, but also finding alternative protein sources and sharing inspirational plant-based recipes through our brands, such as Knorr and its Future 50, which are being promoted to consumers and through our foodservice business, Unilever Food Solutions.
As a result of our work, for the second year running we were named by ethical investor network, FAIRR, as the leader in its 2022 benchmark of companies that are using protein diversification to drive growth and build climate-aligned portfolios.
Our positive nutrition commitment aims to include a meaningful amount of ingredients such as vegetables and fruits, or micronutrients. These are the ingredients that international dietary recommendations suggest should be a regular part of a healthy and sustainable diet, as they are good for people and the planet. Our aim is that by 2025, 54% of our products will deliver positive nutrition, versus 27% in 2020.
We continue to drive our positive nutrition agenda across our Nutrition and Ice Cream portfolios and have made good progress towards increasing the number of products sold which meets this aim. In 2022, 48% of the products we sold delivered positive nutrition (b), up from 41% the year before.
Brands such as Horlicks and Knorr are offering consumers positive nutrition through fortification. Since 2017, we have delivered more than 236 billion servings of products fortified with critical micronutrients. In Ethiopia, Knorr’s all-in-one bouillon cube is fortified with iodine and zinc. And in Egypt, Knorr recently launched vegetable, chicken and beef stock cubes fortified with iodine. Horlicks drinks are all fortified with critical micronutrients such as zinc and vitamins C and D, which are all known to support immunity, and in 2022 the brand launched a convenient and affordable ‘Ready Mix’ range.
We have sizeable Nutrition and Ice Cream portfolios and therefore have a responsibility to ensure our products meet globally recognised nutritional standards. The main way we do this is by ensuring new products meet these standards and by reformulating existing products.
We have aligned our own Highest Nutritional Standards (HNS) with WHO dietary guidance, using its daily nutrient guidelines for the specific standards of our product group. After more than doubling the proportion of our portfolio which met our nutritional standards between 2010 and 2020, we extended our target to 70% by 2022.
Many of our products now meet our nutritional standards and we have succeeded in taking consumers on the journey, including with some of our biggest brands. Hellmann’s, for example, introduced a range of spicy mayo in Europe and North America in 2022 which are all compliant with our WHO–aligned nutritional standards, without compromising on taste.
By the end of 2022, 64% of our portfolio met WHO-aligned nutritional standards (b) (c). During the pandemic, supply chain challenges meant we focused on maintaining production of our existing portfolio. This issue has also been compounded by raw material shortages connected with climate change and the war in Ukraine, meaning that we have not been able to innovate and reformulate our products at the pace or scale we had planned.
In October 2022, our WHO-aligned nutritional standards commitment was replaced by a new target to ensure that 85% of our portfolio meets Unilever Science-based Nutrition Criteria (USNC) by 2028. These product-specific criteria set thresholds for calories, sugar, salt and saturated fat. Progress against the new commitment will be reported in 2023.
In addition, we were the first global food company to publicly report on the performance of our product portfolio against six different externally endorsed Nutrient Profile Models. We are advocating for an industry-wide standard model that every food company can report against. We are also working with partners to incentivise reformulation at scale and enhance the impact on public health.
As a global leader in the ice cream market, we recognise our role in improving nutritional standards and encouraging healthy behaviours.
Many of our products are complex, particularly those with sauces, coatings and cones, so we work closely with our suppliers to reduce sugar in every part of the ice cream. This typically requires several changes in ingredient technologies, such as around the mix of sugars, carbohydrates and fibres. For example, in 2022 we reduced the sugar content in Magnum White across Europe and in Cornetto Chocollage sold in Mexico.
In recent years, we also launched several ice creams and water ices with no added sugar, such as Magnum No Added Sugar and Calippo Zero Sugar in Europe as well as desserts under Holanda, Pinguino and Kibon brands in Latin America. In 2022, Magnum Zero Sugar was also launched in Mexico, and is available in both standard and mini size.
In 2022, we maintained our performance versus the previous year, with 89% of packaged ice cream containing no more than 22 g of total sugar per serving (b) (d). We remain committed to limiting sugar within our Ice Cream portfolio without compromising taste.
We know how important it is to limit calories without sacrificing taste. Our sugar and calorie reduction programme is applied across our total Ice Cream portfolio globally and uses a variety of methods to lower calories, including portion size reduction.
In 2022, our brands continued to reduce calories to no more than 250 kcal per serving, with more lower calorie options available, such as Wall’s Yogurt Smoothie Strawberry in Thailand (80 kcal), Wall’s Asian Delight Black Bean in Malaysia (100 kcal) and Breyers in the US (60–150 kcal per serving).
Among our pleasure brands, like Magnum, we have many products that have less than 250 kcal, like Magnum Classic (110 ml) in Europe as well products such as Magnum Double Gold Caramel Billionaire, recently launched in 2022 in Europe, Turkey and Australia in sticks and tub format.
As a result of our sugar and calorie reduction programme, 94% of our packaged ice cream in 2022 contained no more than 250 kcal per serving(b)(d).
Globally, excess daily salt intake remains a challenge and we aim to reduce salt as part of our products’ nutritional quality improvement. Reformulation roadmaps have been put in place to help guide the nutritional improvement – including salt reduction – of our portfolio. This gradual transformation helps people better adapt to product improvements.
Knorr has led the way on reducing salt with the introduction of low-salt bouillon cubes and its first zero-salt bouillon range which is now available in a number of Latin American and European markets, as well as the US.
We fell just short of our target in 2022, with 82% of our Foods portfolio helping consumers reduce their salt intake to no more than 5 g per day(b)(c). During the pandemic, supply chain challenges meant we focused on maintaining production of our existing portfolio. This issue has also been compounded by raw material shortages connected with climate change and the war in Ukraine, meaning that we have not been able to innovate and reformulate our products at the pace or scale we had planned.
In October 2022, we announced our next ambition to continue to lower salt in our portfolio, with a goal of 85% of our portfolio to meet Unilever Science-based Nutrition Criteria (USNC) by 2028. Along with salt, these product-specific criteria set thresholds for calories, sugar and saturated fat.
Our original target announced in November 2020 was to achieve €1 billion in annual sales from plant-based meat and dairy alternatives by 2025–2027.
Measured for a 12 month period ended 30 September.
From 2023, this commitment will be replaced with a new target to ensure that 85% of our servings meet Unilever's Science-based Nutrition Criteria (USNC) by 2028.
A serving refers to a pre-packed, single-serve ice cream product meant to be consumed in one go. It also refers to 100 ml when sold in packaging aimed at multi-consumption moments.
