Addressing Nutritional Challenges Through Micronutrient Fortification

Nestlé’s ambition is to be recognized as the leading Nutrition, Health and Wellness Company, helping to enhance the quality of life of our consumers by bringing the best and most relevant products to people, wherever they are, whatever their needs, throughout their lives.

A number of global trends – including a growing world population, urbanization, rising incomes, and an increase in the number of people living beyond 60 years – have an impact on nutritional habits and health. In many developing countries, people bear a “double burden” of malnutrition, with undernutrition (comprising protein-energy malnutrition and micronutrient malnutrition) and overnutrition (overweight and obesity) occurring simultaneously. In general, people in lower-income groups around the world are at higher risk of suffering malnutrition in any form.

With 2,000+ global and local brands and more than one billion products sold around the world every day, Nestlé has the ability and reach to make a positive impact on the health and nutrition of our consumers on a large scale – by offering the right kinds of products and helping consumers make the right nutritional choices.

How do we aim to do that? We have a fundamental conviction that for a company like ours to prosper, we must take a long-term view. Everything we do should create shareholder value, and at the same time, our work must create value for society at large, because that is what ensures the long-term sustainability of a company. We call this “creating shared value.”

We employ more than 339,000 people and have operations in almost every country in the world. We recognize that our global and local reach, which we take pride in, brings both opportunities and responsibilities. Therefore, beyond complying with national laws, international standards, and our own Nestlé Corporate Business Principles (which are based on the UN Global Compact’s Ten Principles), we are operating in ways that help protect the environment for future generations. Thus, our commitments to sustainability and compliance form the foundations upon which we build our actions to create shared value in our focus areas of nutrition, water, and rural development.

We aim to create shared value in the area of nutrition by providing nutritious products that deliver real health benefits to our consumers and by making our products more affordable and accessible through innovation and partnerships. We have more than 140 years of experience in enhancing the nutritional profiles of food products. Today, many of our products are fortified primarily with the “big four” micronutrients – iron, iodine, vitamin A, and zinc. We use information from local governments and international health authorities to identify the different nutritional gaps in diets. We then “renovate” our portfolio by adding the relevant nutrients, focusing on popular foods.

It is important that our fortified products reach the people who need them most, so they must be enjoyable, nutritious, and affordable. We market a growing number of “popularly positioned products” – high-quality food products, ranging from culinary products to dairy, that provide nutritional value at prices to suit those on lower incomes. We prioritize the needs of young children and women of child-bearing age in countries where micronutrient deficiencies are most prevalent, and fortify the products preferred by these vulnerable groups to address specific local needs.

Dehydrated milk powders make very good carriers of micronutrients and provide a way to get them to people on a lower income without changing their existing eating habits. By the end of 2012, our affordable milk ranges were available in more than 80 countries, where they are largely consumed by preschool children. Our recent milk product launches include Nido Dayem, an affordable, iron-enriched milk launched in the Maghreb region of northern Africa. We have a range of powdered and ready-to-drink milks in the Philippines that are fortified with essential micronutrients and have also developed a range of affordable fortified infant cereals to help bridge the nutrition gap during the weaning period and beyond.

We have launched a new research program that seeks to use conventionally bred crops that are naturally rich in micronutrients. This is done by cross-breeding varieties that are rich in micronutrients with high-yield varieties to produce high-yielding, nutritious crops.

For instance, cassava, which is rich in vitamin A, is being bred in Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire, whereas rice rich in iron and zinc is being developed for Madagascar. These will be integrated into future product lines as an alternative to fortification. By sourcing conventionally bred staple food crops that are bio-fortified, we hope to increase the quality of raw materials used in production while promoting the planting and consumption of plant foods rich in vitamins and minerals by rural populations in developing countries.

To address iron and vitamin A deficiencies in Nigeria, we have fortified our affordably priced Golden Morn family cereals with both these ingredients. More than 210 million servings of Golden Morn are consumed in Nigeria every year, so fortification gives families across the country the opportunity to increase their nutritional intake every day at breakfast. We are also training farmers in Ghana and Nigeria who grow the corn used to make Golden Morn to follow simple practices that reduce the risk of damage from naturally occurring mycotoxins and increase yields, quality, and consequently price. About 30,000 farmers have benefited from the project since its launch in 2009.

We have supported the launch of all our fortified Maggi products with advertising and information campaigns that promote their health benefits, their affordability, and the benefits of combining them with fresh, locally sourced products.

We have gone on the road in Central and West Africa to provide nutrition expertise and healthy eating tips to consumers. Maggi brand “cooking caravans” are traveling through Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, and Nigeria, educating people about balanced diets, micronutrient deficiency, and the importance of culinary hygiene. The program also aims to encourage cooking at home.

This year, we made a commitment to improve the nutritional profiles of our products to help reduce the risks of undernutrition through micronutrient fortification. We aim to lead industry efforts to help ensure that consumers everywhere have the right choices and availability of products to be optimally nourished and, consequently, enjoy good health and personal wellness. We have the capacity and, even more importantly, the determination to do so.