Sigma Alimentos

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
The company has set its 2025 sustainability goals, which are aligned with the UN sustainable development goals framework. The sustainability strategy has four action pillars: health & nutrition, shared value, wellbeing, and environment. The company can improve its performance by reporting against all the targets.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
While responsibility for the company’s sustainable development strategy lies with the central sustainability department, the company has an opportunity to strengthen accountability by assigning this responsibility to its highest governance body and disclosing further information on its decision-making processes and oversight responsibilities, as well as linking sustainability objectives and targets to roles and remuneration.

Stakeholder engagement
The company does not disclose stakeholder engagement activities, including how it selects the stakeholders, nor an overview of the topics discussed or their outcomes.

Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions
The company aims to achieve a 20% reduction in CO2 emissions per ton of food produced related to its plants and refrigerated transportation fleet by 2025. As of 2019, Sigma Alimentos discloses a 12% reduction compared to the baseline year. However, the company can improve its performance by setting a goal which covers the full scope 1 and 2.

Protection of terrestrial natural ecosystems
The company does not disclose activities aimed at achieving deforestation and conversion-free (DCF) supply chains for its relevant high-risk commodities. It has an opportunity to increase its disclosure on commitments to source its high-risk commodities through recognised certification programmes or by disclosing targets for achieving DCF supply chains.

Protein diversification
While the company discloses that it is diversifying its protein portfolio by offering 5% alternative protein products out of the 500 new products launched in 2019, it has an opportunity to strengthen its commitment by setting targets to increase the production and/or consumption of alternative proteins.

Plastic use and packaging waste
The company provides examples on how it is reducing plastic use as by incorporating recycled plastic and by evaluating the use of alternative materials for packaging. In 2019, Sigma Alimentos saved more than 4,700 tons of virgin plastic in packaging by incorporating recycled plastic. There is room for improvement by disclosing a time-bound target to reduce plastic use in its value chain.

Food loss and waste
The company has a general commitment on reducing food waste and has reduced by 40% and 35% its dry sausage waste at two plants in Mexico and Europe. In US, its foodservice LatAm and the U.S. organizational units reduced this indicator by 23%, 9%, and 5%, respectively. However, the company can improve its performance by disclosing a specific target to be achieved by 2025.

Availability of healthy foods
The company does not provide evidence of improving the nutritional quality of its products and of proportionally increasing the sales of healthy and nutritious foods.

Accessibility and affordability of healthy foods
The company does not disclose a commitment and activities to improve the accessibility and affordability of healthy foods for vulnerable groups.

Clear and transparent labelling
While the company discloses a commitment of compliance with national regulations regarding labelling and commits to providing nutritional information on key relevant nutrients through back-of-pack labels, it has an opportunity to make nutritional information more visible to consumers through the adoption of front-of-pack labels or any other consumer-facing nutrition label.

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

Farmer and fisher productivity and resilience
The company has a diary development programme for dairy farmers in Mexico which supports more than 360 cow and goat milk producers, providing job to more than 600 families. The company can strengthen its performance by disclosing the impact of the programme.

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

Sigma Alimentos commits to respect human rights, and it has a grievance channel open for anyone internal and external to raise concerns and complaints. However, the company does not have a publicly available policy statement committing it to respecting the right to collective bargaining nor expects its supply chain partners to commit to it as well. Additionally, Sigma Alimentos does not disclose the process to identify and address its human rights salient risks in its own operations and its supply chain partners.

There is room for the company to improve on health and safety disclosure. Indeed, the company publicly commits to respecting the health and safety of workers and it places health and safety expectations on its supply chain partners. However, it does not disclose quantitative information on health and safety for its workers. Additionally, no disclosure on other decent work topics – including living wage, gender equality, collective bargaining and diversity- were found in the public domain.

The company has a privacy statement on the use of personal data, and it publicly commits to protecting personal data. In addition, Sigma Alimentos has a publicly available policy statement prohibiting bribery and corruption and an accessible and open channel to make related report. However, it lacks to disclose the process to identify and address these issues, and to include anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with supply chain partners. To conclude, no relevant commitments on other ethical business topics – tax and lobbying and political engagement – were found in the public domain.