McCain Foods

Sustainable development strategy
Within its global sustainability strategy, McCain Foods has outlined time-bound targets across its four pillars: smart and sustainable farming, resource-efficient operations, good food and thriving communities. These topics cover the three benchmark dimensions of environment, nutrition and social inclusion, demonstrating a holistic appreciation of the company’s role in transforming the food system. McCain Foods further describes the process for identifying and prioritising its core material issues.

Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions
McCain Foods has set a target to reduce absolute CO2 emissions (scope 1 and 2) by 50% and to move out of coal by 2030. The target to reduce scope 1 and 2 emissions is aligned with the 1.5-degree trajectory. The company reports progress against its targets.

No leading practices were identified for the company in the nutrition measurement area.

No leading practices were identified for the company in the social inclusion measurement area.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
Together with a regional governance structure, the company has established a Global Sustainability Steering Committee and Safety and Sustainability Board Committee. While the company demonstrates that the accountability for and oversight of its sustainability strategy lies with the highest governance body, it can improve its disclosure by describing the decision-making process and responsibilities of its governance bodies. Moreover, no evidence was found of a remuneration policy for executives and/or board members linked to sustainability performance.

Stakeholder engagement
While the company discloses that it undertakes engagement activities with its key stakeholders, it has an opportunity to improve its disclosure regarding how it selects the stakeholders, the overview of the topics discussed and the outcomes of the discussions.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity, and fertiliser and pesticide use
In collaboration with the One Planet Business for Biodiversity initiative, the company has developed a regenerative agriculture strategy that aims to enhance soil health, protect biodiversity to improve yields while reducing dependencies on synthetic inputs. In 2021, McCain Foods launched its new target to implement regenerative agricultural practices across 100% of its potato acres by 2030. Given the recent launch, the company is yet to report progress against its target.

Water use
McCain Foods has set a target to achieve a 15% improvement in water-use efficiency in seven of its priority plants by 2025. The company reports progress against its target but is yet to disclose the water-stress dependency across its own operations. However, for its supply chain, the company reports that 40% of its global potato volume is grown in communities that are identified as medium to high water stress and discloses engaging with growers in such areas through efficient drip irrigation systems and promoting use of water stress tolerant varieties.

Food loss and waste
While the company is addressing food loss and waste through initiatives to minimise food waste, it has an opportunity to disclose a commitment by setting targets to reduce food loss and waste across its own operations and supply chain and reporting against these targets.

Availability of healthy foods
The company has set a target for a 15% reduction in sodium (sales-weighted average) in its potatoes and appetiser products by 2025. Despite its reformulation activities to reduce the level of salt in products sold in India and South America, the company acknowledges the need for further improvements. McCain Foods also reports on the reduction of saturated fat across its portfolio. The company can improve its performance by using nutritional standards to guide its product (re)formulation and setting a target to increase the proportion of healthy foods in its portfolio.

Clear and transparent labelling
The company commits to providing clear and transparent nutrition information on its products. Moreover, it has participated in mandatory as well as voluntary retail front-of-pack labelling schemes in 16 countries. The company can, however, improve its performance by reporting the proportion of products on which it has rolled out its labelling commitment globally.

Food safety
The company states that its facilities undergo and pass an annual third-party audit against one of the standards recognised by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). However, there remains room for improvement in terms of disclosure at the supply chain level. McCain Foods does not report on the percentage of food suppliers certified against GFSI-approved standards

Child labour
While the company commits to prohibiting child labour in its own operations and requires its suppliers to adhere to the same standards, it has an opportunity to disclose a policy requiring its suppliers to have an age-verification system in place.

Forced labour
The company commits to prohibiting forced labour in its operations and requires its suppliers to adhere to the same standards. It further prohibits suppliers from retaining workers’ personal documents and restricting workers’ freedom of movement. However, it has an opportunity to disclose a commitment to respect workers’ rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining in its operations as well as specify that it does not interfere with workers seeking to exercise these rights in its operations and supply chain.

Health and safety of vulnerable groups
The company does not specifically recognise the health and safety risks to vulnerable groups, such as migrant and temporary labourers, women and young farmers.

Farmers productivity and resilience
The company discloses commitment and examples of supporting farmer productivity and resilience, focusing on activities to support farmers such as trainings to increase crop yields. However, McCain Foods can strengthen its performance by disclosing the impact of its activities.

McCain Foods provides grievance mechanisms for both workers and third parties. While the company commits to respecting the human rights of workers in its supply chain, it lacks a similar policy statement for its own operations. Additionally, McCain Foods provides no evidence of a human rights due diligence process and does not disclose that it engages with affected and potentially affected stakeholders.

The company commits to health and safety, and it demonstrates that it has achieved paying all its workers a living wage. There is an opportunity for McCain Foods to strengthen its living wage commitments as well as extend them to its supply chain. Additionally, the company commits to increasing women in leadership roles to at least 30%. However, McCain Foods lacks disclosure on key metrics regarding collective bargaining and workforce diversity.

The company publicly commits to protecting personal data and has a privacy statement on the use of personal data. Moreover, McCain Foods provides policy statements regarding bribery, corruption and lobbying and political engagement, but it can improve its disclosure by reporting on key metrics related to these topics. In addition, no evidence of a global tax strategy was found in the public domain.