Danone top for nutrition

I was impressed when I read about the new Access to Nutrition Index, which ranks 25 of the world’s top food and drink companies on their contribution to tackling obesity and poor nutrition. Three things particularly struck me:

• Its attention to good nutrition as well as obesity.
• Its backing by the Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and financial institutions managing over $2,600 billion in funds.
• Its awarding Danone a score of 6.3 out of 10.

All companies will want to aim higher, but they have very varied portfolios and this is a campaigning index.

It was disappointing, but not surprising, that only Unilever and Nestlé also scored over 6.

The next three were PepsiCo, Kraft and Mexico’s Bimbo. I imagined Barilla and Campbell would have come higher than 12=. I did not expect Lactalis and FrieslandCampina to lag behind Mars and Hershey.