Nestlé tops supplier ranking for impact on diet and environment

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Nestle HQ

Nestlé’s headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland

Nestlé has come top in a ranking of the UK’s biggest suppliers for their work in building a fair and sustainable food system.

The Better Food Index, which is the first ranking of its kind, scored the 30 biggest UK food & drink suppliers and manufacturers based on factors including nutrition, affordability, environmental impact, social impact and transparency.

The results put a gulf between fmcg household-name giants and supermarket own-label suppliers, with Unilever in second place and Morrisons subsidiaries Neerock and Farmers Boy last and second-to-last respectively. Neerock processes and supplies fresh meat for the supermarket, while Farmers Boy produces chilled goods such as cooked meats, pies, quiches and steaks.

Eight Fifty Food Group, which was acquired last year by Canadian multi-protein producer Sofina Foods and supplies retailer own-label seafood and pork, came 28^th. Asda subsidiary IPL, which sources fresh fruit & veg and wine for the supermarket, was 27^th.

The businesses were ranked based on a total score out of 100, arrived at by aggregating their marks across a range of areas and giving more weight to some criteria than others. Nestlé earned a total of 51, versus Neerock’s 17.

Each business also got a ‘talk’ score, based on criteria including publicly reported targets and ambitions.

Tortoise Intelligence, which compiled the landmark ranking, said supermarket subsidiaries scored poorly in a number of areas including environment and transparency because their data was reported only at parent company level, and regarded as “missing” by the research.

“We think all large companies should report their data and be transparent, rather than just rely on their parent company to do it on their behalf,” said Maddy Diment, researcher for Tortoise.

Scores for nutrition were based on criteria including the average nutrient profile of products and the percentage with high levels of salt, fat, or sugar. Nestlé got 64, while Kellogg’s did even better, at 72.

However, the best nutrition scores went to Birds Eye and poultry giant Avara Foods, earning 81 and 83 respectively.

On affordability, Tortoise took into account factors including the average protein content per £1-worth of goods, and scored IPL highest at 66 followed by Birds Eye at 65.

Tortoise – which is due to host a roundtable discussion with National Food Strategy author Henry Dimbleby and farming and fisheries minister Victoria Prentis on Thursday 30 June – said poor transparency was a theme of the findings.

It found 10 companies did not report Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions.

“Meat producers have the worst Scope 3 reporting in the index, despite the fact that meat is a carbon-intensive sector,” said a report by the researchers.

Here are the full rankings:

Company	Environment	Affordability	Nutrition	Social Impact	Financial Sustainability	Transparency Score	Talk Score	Total Score
Nestlé	70	34	64	58	54	89	62	51
Unilever	85	12	56	59	41	89	67	49
Cranswick	72	31	51	49	40	91	50	47
Premier Foods	56	42	66	61	37	87	47	47
Arla Foods	77	17	78	63	24	82	49	47
Kellogg’s	52	41	72	58	32	86	38	46
Birds Eye	65	65	81	46	55	72	18	46
Avara Foods	58	43	83	55	27	80	33	45
Mondelez	66	39	52	52	38	85	48	45
Britvic	62	17	61	66	22	89	24	45
Hilton Food Group	71	21	70	47	35	84	44	44
Greencore Convenience Foods	52	35	68	61	19	86	37	43
Coca-Cola Europacific Partners	76	26	45	50	38	84	37	43
Dunbia	72	29	56	52	36	81	30	43
H. J. Heinz Foods	68	29	43	60	30	84	31	42
Mars UK	69	22	52	67	20	79	52	40
Princes Group	61	34	65	51	18	77	18	39
Associated British Foods	32	30	71	72	32	80	14	38
Pilgrim’s Pride	64	31	47	35	21	86	33	38
Pladis UK & I	64	38	50	47	34	75	11	37
Bakkavor	41	9	63	51	20	89	30	35
Samworth Brothers	46	28	59	46	17	81	9	34
Moy Park	48	23	71	51	17	75	15	34
Boparan Holdings	46	31	44	53	10	79	23	32
Muller	24	28	71	57	17	76	26	30
Fletcher Bay Group	19	34	64	53	4	74	0	27
*International Procurement & Logistics	0	66	72	53	16	63	13	25
Eight Fifty Food Group	30	20	40	47	47	68	0	24
*Farmers Boy	0	32	49	56	16	61	0	18
*Neerock	0	32	50	51	16	62	0	17