Hormel Foods

Lobbying and advocacy
The company discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member wherever it operates.

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses an overview of the issues raised during its stakeholder engagement activities and the channels it uses to engage with its stakeholder groups.

Food loss and waste
The company has set FLW reduction targets that align with SDG 12.3, which aims to achieve a 50% reduction in food loss and waste by 2030.

Plastic use and packaging waste
The company demonstrates commitment, has policies or partakes in activities related to plastic use reduction and transitioning towards sustainable packaging.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity
The company discloses activities to improve soil health and agrobiodiversity as it expects the agricultural suppliers to develop a soil management plan which includes soil quality monitoring and the management of erosion risks. Further, it has in place regenerative agriculture projects.

Water withdrawal
The company focuses on reducing water withdrawal within its own operations and demonstrates this commitment. It has set a specific target for reducing water withdrawal, and regularly reports progress towards achieving this goal. Furthermore, the company provides detailed information on the amount of water withdrawn in regions facing water scarcity.

Clear and transparent labelling
While the company discloses that it is using Facts Up Front (FUF) labelling, it has an opportunity to adopt an interpretive government-endorsed front-of-pack labelling system.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
The company ensures markets for hog producers through long-term agreements and also offers long-term contract grower agreements for turkey farmers.

Forced labour
The company prohibits the payment of any recruitment fees or related costs to secure a job, and it does not retain workers’ personal documents or restrict workers’ freedom of movement in its supply chain.

Land rights
The company requires its business relationships to have a process to identify legitimate tenure rights holders paying particular attention to vulnerable or marginalised tenure rights holders, and to negotiate with them to provide adequate compensation.

Act ethically
The company has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption, and includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with direct business relationships. It also has a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints regarding bribery and corruption. Moreover, the company discloses its lobbying expenditures.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has a publicly available policy statement committing to respect the heath and safety of workers in its operations and supply chain. Additionally, the company discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements. It also discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by age group. Moreover, it reports the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category, divulges that it has 33.33% women on the board, and sets a target to increase the number of women in salaried roles by 25% by 2025. The company has 33.33% women on the board.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights and the ILO core labors rights at work. Moreover, it indicates that it has a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers, as well as all external stakeholders who may be adversely impacted by the company.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
The company has an opportunity to link performance criteria in senior executives’ remuneration policies to targets and objectives which cover environmental and social issues. Furthermore, it could disclose whether its highest governance body has expertise with respect to the company’s most material sustainability topics.

Lobbying and advocacy
The company has an opportunity to disclose a clear and detailed framework for assessing alignment of its trade associations with its sustainability targets. Additionally, it can report any (potential) misalignments between the lobbying activities of its trade associations and its sustainability targets.

Stakeholder engagement
The company has an opportunity to explain how it has responded to key issues raised by each stakeholder group and disclose specific outcomes implemented to respond to key issues for each stakeholder group, beyond materiality assessment.

Sustainable development strategy
The company has an opportunity to disclose its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability topics and impacts. Furthermore, while it discloses some sustainability objectives including those related to climate and social inclusion, there is room to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. Additionally, while the company reports consistently against some targets, it has an opportunity to report consistently against all its targets.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company has an opportunity to disclose reductions in Scope 1 and 2 and Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions, and set time-bound targets aligned with the Paris agreement’s 1.5 degree pathway.

Ecosystem conversion
The company has an opportunity to disclose its efforts to avoid ecosystem conversion, including deforestation or restoration. It also could develop a strategy and publicly report on specific, time-bound targets.

Food loss and waste
The company has an opportunity to disclose its FLW reduction targets and report progress against them.

Plastic use and packaging waste
The company discloses a reduction of more than 727,000 pounds of product packaging, however, it has an opportunity to provide quantitative evidence of reducing plastic use in particular.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity
The company has an opportunity to disclose a target to improve soil health in its production or sourcing practices and report progress against it.

Water withdrawal
The company has an opportunity to engage with suppliers to reduce water withdrawal.

Accessibility and affordability of nutritious foods
The company has the opportunity to implement commercial activities that will enhance the accessibility and affordability of nutritious foods, particularly for vulnerable groups. Additionally, the company can set targets to improve the accessibility and affordability of nutritious foods through its commercial activities, with a specific focus on vulnerable groups.

Availability of nutritious foods
The company currently provides examples of reformulated products. However, there is potential for improvement in reporting its overall efforts to reduce sugar, salt, and fat, and/or increase the presence of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and whole grains in its entire portfolio. Additionally, there is an opportunity for the company to adopt a nutrient profiling system and to set a sales-based target to increase the proportion of more nutritious products.

Clear and transparent labelling
The company has an opportunity to disclose the percentage of products/menus for which its front-of-pack labelling schemes have been rolled out.

Food safety
The company has an opportunity to demonstrate that 100% of its own operations are certified to a GFSI food safety scheme/certification programme or other widely recognised (industry-specific) certification. Additionally, it can disclose the percentage of its food suppliers that are certified to a GFSI-recognized food safety scheme.

Child labour
The company has an opportunity to disclose examples of remediation programmes when a case of child labour is found in its operations and to indicate how it is building the capacity of its suppliers to prevent child labour impacts. While the company prohibits its suppliers from using child labour, it could require them to have an age-verification system in place.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
The company has an opportunity to identify living income benchmarks and assess living income gaps for some regions or commodities.

Forced labour
For its operations, the company has an opportunity to disclose a policy commitment to the prohibition of paying recruitment fees or related costs to secure a job, retaining workers’ personal documents or restricting workers’ freedom of movement. Furthermore, it could indicate how it is building the capacity of its suppliers to prevent forced labour impacts.

Land rights
The company has an opportunity to disclose a commitment to respect ownership and use of land and natural resources and related legitimate tenure rights. Furthermore, it could describe a process at its operations and supply chain level to identify legitimate tenure rightsholders when acquiring, leasing or making other arrangements to use land and to negotiate with them to provide adequate compensation.

Living wage
The company has an opportunity to set a target for paying a living wage across its direct suppliers and describe how it determines a living wage for the regions where it sources. Also, it could disclose the percentage of workers across its own operations or suppliers that are paid a living wage.

Act ethically
While the company discloses a process for compliance on corruption and bribery risks, it could describe the process for identifying these risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations. Moreover, the company discloses its political engagement approach in a policy statement, but it has an opportunity to have a policy setting out its lobbying approach and specifying that it does not make political contributions.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has an opportunity to disclose how it monitors the health and safety performance of its suppliers. Additionally, while the company states that it strives to provide a fair living wage, it could describe how it determines a living wage for each region, and set a related time-bound target or reveal that it has achieved this goal. Relatedly, while the company has set expectations on the wage paid by its suppliers, it has an opportunity to add a requirement for them to pay a living wage, and disclose how it supports the payment.

Moreover, while the company is committed to promoting equal opportunities for all employees, it can explicitly commit to gender equality and women’s empowerment. It could further enhance transparency by disclosing information on the ratio of the basic salary and remuneration of women to men.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect specific workers’ rights but has an opportunity to reference all the ILO fundamental rights at work. Additionally, while the company conducts key topic assessments and due diligence in general, it has an opportunity to disclose the process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts in its operations and its supply chain. It could further describe its process for assessing and identifying what it considers to be its salient human rights issues. Moreover, while the company discloses that it requires suppliers to implement corrective actions on human and labour standards, it could disclose a global system to act on all its salient human rights issues in all its activities.