Access to Nutrition Index

The Global Access to Nutrition Index (ATNI) 2018 aims to track the contribution of food and beverage (F&B) manufacturers to address global nutrition challenges by helping to improve diets worldwide. As incomes increase, consumers tend to eat and drink more packaged foods and beverages, driving growth in the F&B industry, particularly in emerging markets. The 22 F&B manufacturers assessed in the 2018 ATNI operate in over 200 countries and generate approximately US$500 billion in sales. They therefore have a huge impact on the diets of consumers and the lives of their employees and have an important role to play in addressing the world’s nutrition challenges.

In his blog Development Horizons Lawrence Haddad summarises the findings of the 2018 ATNI. The “good news” is that most companies are “upping their game” in terms of their ATNI scores, possibly because of the index itself, with Nestlé leading the way as the highest-scoring company with 6.8 out of 10, up from 5.9 in 2016. The average score across all companies, however, is low at 3.3 and some companies’ scores declined. Of the companies that defined targets to reformulate their products (n=16), all only did so for some of their products for some nutritional components, with little clarity on baselines and timelines.

Improvements are also needed in terms of targets relating to positive components of a healthy diet (such as fruits and vegetables); responsible marketing to children and adolescents in all media; offering facilities to express and store breast milk and paid parental leave; commitment to label all nutrients globally; commitment to lobby in support of measures to prevent and address obesity; and to have global policies to make nutritious food more available and accessible to all. The report recommends that companies commit to reformulate all products (reducing salt, sugar and fat where needed and increase nutrients and fibre-rich ingredients); have a programme to support breastfeeding parents; market responsibly to all children 0-18 years of age in all media, with no exceptions; and agree not to lobby against the introduction of diet-related public health measures for which there is a scientific consensus. Lawrence states: “Food companies must be celebrated when they get it right and show progress and be called out when they do not. This report does this in a clear, balanced and therefore powerful way”.