NH Foods

No leading practices were identified for the company in the governance and strategy measurement area.

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

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.

Sustainable development strategy
NH Foods outlines its materiality identification process and its resulting focus areas, which span all three pillars of this benchmark (environment, nutrition and social inclusion). However, the company does not set targets for all of its key material issues.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development strategy
NH Foods has tasked a sustainability committee, headed by the president of its board of directors, to steer the group’s sustainability initiatives. However, no information was disclosed regarding ties between management remuneration and sustainability objectives.

Stakeholder engagement
The company outlines its key stakeholder groups, its approach towards them and how it engages with each. However, it does not disclose the outcomes of these activities or how they are integrated into the company’s sustainability strategy.

Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions
NH Foods discloses multiple targets related to climate change mitigation for 2020 against a 2012-2016 average, including an 8% intensity reduction target which was superseded, reaching 10% by the deadline. However, the company’s target is not aligned with a 1.5-degree warming pathway. While the company discloses that it is measuring scope 3 emissions by disclosing segments of these emissions, it has an opportunity to strengthen its commitment by setting targets and reporting against them.

Protection of natural terrestrial ecosystems
While NH Foods has a target to source 100% of its palm oil from Roundtable Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certified sellers by 2030, the company does not disclose any quantitative data on how much of each of its high risk commodities are already deforestation- or conversion-free.

Sustainable fishing and aquaculture
NH Foods provides evidence of selling some Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) certified products within its portfolio, but does not accompany this reporting with a target to increase sustainable products in its portfolio.

Water use
While NH Foods has a target to reduce water consumption by 5% by 2030 compared to 2019, it reports a 4.5% increase since the baseline year. The company could improve its performance by reporting progress against its target.

Plastic use and packaging waste
NH Foods provides quantitative evidence of reducing plastic use and packaging across its operations. For example, it reduced a packaging of a pizza product by 47%, of a pork product by 24%, and reports a decrease in waste projected volume year-on-year since 2016. The company could improve its performance by disclosing time-bound targets to reduce plastic use.

Animal welfare, antibiotic use and growth promoting substances
NH Foods discloses qualitative evidence of efforts or expectations related to animal welfare. However, the company does not disclose any global policy on the topic nor does it report on the welfare of key species across its operations. Furthermore, the company does not disclose that it is reducing or prohibiting the prophylactic use of antibiotics and growth-promoting substances for aquatic and farm animals relevant to the company. It has an opportunity to disclose a commitment on antibiotics which addresses the topic across its relevant species, geographies and products.

Food safety
NH Foods discloses that 131 of its farms and plants areSafe Quality Food (SQF) certified. However, because it does not disclose how many farms and plants it operates, it is not possible to know if this number represents all of its units.

Availability, accessibility and affordability of healthy foods
The company does not disclose a commitment or activities to increase the availability, accessibility and affordability of healthy and nutritious foods.

Responsible marketing
The company does not disclose a responsible marketing policy, nor specific guidelines for marketing to children.

Workforce nutrition
The company does not disclose sufficient evidence of having any workforce nutrition programmes.

Child and forced labour
The company does not disclose a commitment to prohibit child or forced labour in its operations and supply chain.

Living wage
The company does not disclose that it pays its workers a living wage or requires its suppliers to do the same. Neither has it set targets to do so in the future.

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

Farmer productivity and resilience
The company does not disclose a commitment or examples of activities to support the resilience, productivity and access to markets for farmers, fishers and/or small-scale producers in its supply chain.

The company commits to respect human rights and the ILO core labour rights and has a publicly available statement that codifies a similar expectation for its supply chain partners. However, NH Foods lacks disclosure on other elements in relation to respecting human rights, including a grievance mechanism which is accessible to both employees and externals stakeholders and details on its process to identify, assess and take action to address its human rights salient risks in its own operations and its supply chain partners.

NH Foods publicly commits to respecting the health and safety of workers and places similar expectations on its supply chain partners. It discloses workforce diversity data on the number of employees by gender and the percentage of both female employee and managers, in addition to a time-bound target for 12% of supervisory and management positions to be filled by women by 2020. However, the company could improve its score by disclosing commitments and targets towards paying its workers a living wage and outlining similar expectations for its supply chain partners.

The company publicly commits to protecting personal data and has a privacy statement on the use of personal data. NH Foods also discloses a global tax strategy, albeit without accompanying this with information on the amount of tax it pays per tax jurisdiction. The company lacks disclosure on how it prohibits, identifies and addresses risks related to bribery and corruption, and does not disclose its approach to lobbying and political engagement, nor its lobbying expenditures.