SUPPORTING STATEMENT: Coca-Cola is evolving towards a ‘Total Beverage Company’ with over 200 brands and a global reach1 . Coca-Cola identifies “Health & Nutrition” as a “Priority Topic”2 . Coca-Cola has addressed this topic until now solely by focusing on sugar and calorie reduction. This is insufficient because:
● Leading government-endorsed Nutrient Profiling Models (NPM), such as Health Star Rating and Nutriscore, show that the amount of other substances such as fiber, protein, fat, salt and micronutrients are crucial to the healthiness of food and beverage products3 4 . Only focusing on sugar and calorie reduction does not address the nutritional risks and opportunities for all its products and all the markets in which Coca-Cola is active.
● An increasing number of companies map their product portfolio and inform investors regarding the healthiness of their products. The Access to Nutrition US Index 2022 showed that the number of companies using a NPM rose from 6 in 2018 to 10 out of 11 in 2022, including peers such as Pepsico and Unilever5,6 . In this index, only Coca-Cola has not adopted a NPM. Therefore shareholders cannot assess if the Company is adapting to potential regulation, the impact of weight-loss medicines and changing consumer preferences.
● The Access to Nutrition Index advised Coca-Cola to:
o “formally adopt (in a public document or policy) a nutrition strategy covering all forms of malnutrition and groups affected and to more explicitly include nutritionrelated Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in its sustainability agenda”.
o “independently verify the proportion of the company’s global portfolio consisting of low- or no-sugar beverages and preferably the overall proportion of ‘healthy’ products. To report on the latter, the company is advised to formally adopt a Nutrient Profiling Model (NPM) to define ‘healthy’, or publicly align the number of low- or no-sugar beverages with external benchmarks to ensure these products support healthy diets as much as possible.”7
In its 2021 Proxy Statement, Coca-Cola recognizes the importance of this Index and its findings, stating that “Part of the value of the Access to Nutrition Foundation findings in the Global Index is that the Company now has a benchmark and improved awareness of where it stands compared to other manufacturers in the food and beverage industry8 ”.
Our proposal aims to support, evolve and create accountability regarding the strategy of Coca-Cola to be a “Total Beverage Company”.
1 Vision :: The Coca-Cola Company (KO) 2 https://www.coca-colacompany.com/content/dam/company/us/en/reports/coca-cola-businesssustainability-report-2022.pdf#page=34 3 Health Star Rating - Health Star Rating 4 IARC_Evidence_Summary_Brief_2.pdf (who.int) 5 Unilever Portfolio Assessment Against 6 Nutrient Profiling Models 2022 6 pepsico-nutrition-criteria.pdf 7 Coca-Cola – Access to Nutrition 8 0001206774-22-000669.pdf (coca-colacompany.com)