Nutrition enhancement programme
At Unilever, we understand just how important food is to our lives. Food doesn't just sustain us, it can nourish and revitalise us. Good food and drink can improve our health and vitality, be fun and bring families and friends together. We care about food because you do.
Global focus
To help make sure that you get the most nutritional benefits from our foods, Unilever has launched the Nutrition Enhancement Programme. The new programme will scrutinise each and every product in our food and drink portfolio across the globe for levels of trans fat, saturated fats, sodium and sugars. In addition, on-pack claims and information are also being reviewed.
Raising the bar
So far, more than 16 000 products – covering our full foods range – have already been reviewed. Each one has been carefully compared to an individual nutritional benchmark, created by the Unilever Food and Health Research Institute using dietary recommendations from international and national authorities. As well as improving our existing products, these benchmarks are also playing a major role in the development of future innovations.
Making a difference
The programme is already having a massive impact. All our brands will be making changes as a result, either through product reformulation or communication. In 2005 and 2006, we will eliminate 15 000 tons of trans-fats, 10 000 tons of saturated fats, 2 000 tons of sodium and 10 000 tons of sugars from our portfolio.
Proud history
Unilever has a long history of improving the nutritional quality of our products – Knorr first launched soup tablets with meat extract to provide nutrition for the poor in 1886. More recently, Unilever has been reducing the level of trans fats in our spreads since the 1990s, when we were the first company to take action on the issue.
Changing lives
Our programme is not all about reducing levels of fat, sodium and sugar, though. Nearly one-third of the world's children under five are malnourished, and malnutrition contributes to half of all childhood deaths. To try to help overcome nutrient deficiencies in developing countries, Unilever is also fortifying foods, such as enriching Annapurna salt with iodine in Africa and India.
