OXFORD, England — Food and drink manufacturers can greatly improve the sustainability and healthiness of their products with small changes, according to Oxford research.
The authors of a new study in the journal Nature Food looked at the foods sold in the U.K. by 44 major food and beverage manufacturers – that account for approximately 50% of the U.K. food retail market – and assigned scores for nutrition and sustainability per 100g to each product. They found significant variation in similar products between different manufacturers. For instance, a ready meal from one manufacturer might be much less nutritious and sustainable than a similar bar at another manufacturer.
The authors then looked at what might happen if the manufacturers swapped some of their least nutritious and sustainable products with products that had closer to average scores and found significant potential for improvement. And for many manufacturers, more than half the potential improvements were achieved by changing 10% or less of their product line.
Two well-known British supermarkets, whose own brands collectively account for 28.9% of sales value in this analysis, have some of the largest scope to improve their scores for both environment and nutrition, the authors find. But manufacturers with narrow product ranges, such as snack and energy drink manufacturers, generally have lower scope to improve their scores.
“Ours is the first study we are aware of to assess the capacity for food & beverage manufacturers to support nutrition and environmental sustainability through changes within their existing product portfolios,” said lead author Eleanor Hammond, who conducted the research while working at the University of Oxford.
“If food systems are to transition to more nutritious and environmentally sustainable outcomes, food manufacturers are going to have to change the products they sell. This change can either be driven by food & beverage manufacturers, or imposed on them by government policy. Our findings show manufacturers can get a head start on this necessary transition by making small changes to their product portfolios today,” said co-author Dr. Michael Clark, associate professor, Sustainable Food Solutions at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment.
The timing of the study is significant as the U.K. government is under pressure to bring forward legislation requiring mandatory reporting on the nutrition of U.K. food and beverage products.
“Our study demonstrates how the U.K. government could monitor both sustainability and nutritional outcomes together. It could also be used for ESG reporting and support regulatory frameworks, such as the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive,” said Clark.
