Social and technological development brought various advantages that made our everyday life easier in many ways. On the other hand, it forces a fast lifestyle that is no longer a question of the constant lack of time but it has become the biggest health concern of the modern man with accumulated stress and low-quality food.
Many food producers are aware of the fact that quality nutrition is a good habit that could balance the fast lifestyle. Today, many of them strive to further upgrade their products and ingredients they use, while raising awareness about the necessity of change in habits among consumers.
And not only awareness. Consumers, understandably, want to know what’s in the food they eat and serve to their families.
This is why transparency have become one of the key valuation criteria for the companies – their openness toward consumers and providing information about products that can help them make informed choices.
For example, Mars company, global producer known for its food brands for both people and pets was one of the first who improved their marketing standards, back in 2007, while being aware of its’ influence around the world. Those standards refer to, among other things, nutritional information, packaging and ways of promotion.
Today, 100% of their products include front-of-pack nutrition labeling clearly identifying the amount of calories, sodium, sugar, fat, and saturated fat in a serving. In addition to on-pack labeling, product nutrition information is available online.
In 2016, the company announced their ambitious plan, inspired by Mars Food’s Purpose – Better Food Today. A Better World Tomorrow, and that is to deliver One Billion More Healthy Meals Shared on Dinner Tables around the World by the year of 2021. Through this plan Mars’s leading brands start global actions to inspire consumers and associates to prepare healthy means easily together with their friends and family, bringing them to the dinner table, which is a good habit forgotten in these times.
In the past two years since the beginning of the project, the company reached almost half of the planned results through different initiatives and delivered 400 million healthy meals, as defined by World Health Organization (WHO) nutrition recommendations.
Today, 72% of their products (by sales volume) meet WHO recommendations for calories, added sugar, sodium, and fats, as incorporated into the Mars Food Nutrition Criteria. The company is well on their way to ensure that 95% of the portfolio meet these targets by 2021.