In April 2016, the Mars Food segment has communicated its Global Health & Wellbeing ambition . to deliver one billion more healthy meals on dinner tables around the world by 2021- in line with the MARS Food Nutrition Design Criteria that are based on recommendations by the World Health Organization.
More details on the SMART targets can be found at the following link:
Mars Food reported last month great progress towards this ambition as it has added 920 million more healthy meals to dinner tables around the world and now expects to deliver its target of one billion meals by the end of 2019, one year ahead of our target.
With respect to sodium reduction, the specific commitment is to reduce sodium by an average of 20% by 2021 in line with MARS Food Nutrition Design Criteria aiming for a daily sodium intake of 2000 mg:
– Unflavored carbohydrates: 20 mg/serving.
– Flavored carbohydrates: from 250 to 230 mg/100g.
– Thin wet cooking sauces: from an average of 287 to 283 mg/100g.
– Thick cooking sauces: average of 546 mg/100g – reduced from 600 mg/100g.
– Meal makers prepared as full meal: 600 mg/serving.
– Full meal propositions: 600 mg/serving.
– Light meal propositions: 400 mg/serving.
In June 2016, Mars Food reported on the completion of its target to reduce sodium- with a 22.3% reduction since 2016 (link to the full report: https://www.mars.com/news-and-stories/articles/mars-food-launches-global-health-wellbeing-ambition).
Mars Food has followed the “Stealth” approach, involving a series of incremental small steps in sodium reduction, rather than the incorporation of salt replacers such as potassium chloride in its reformulation work.
