Nomad Foods

Sustainability strategy
Nomad Foods discloses its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability impacts as well as the outcome of this process, in relation to its sustainability strategy. Furthermore, it reports consistently against all its targets.

Stakeholder engagement
Nomad Foods discloses the channels it uses to engage with each stakeholder group. Moreover, its stakeholder engagement activities cover nature, nutrition, and social areas.

Sustainable fisheries and aquaculture
Nomad Foods has a commitment to sustainable seafood with using environmental criteria in its sourcing policy. In addition, Nomad Foods shows an increase in the number of MSC- or ASC-certified products across its global portfolio based on a 2-year period and has a target of 100% of its fish and seafood from sustainable fishing or responsible farming by the end of 2025.

Ecosystem impacts of fisheries
Nomad Foods is one of the leading companies in addressing ecosystem impacts of fisheries in the benchmark with 99% of the company’s wild caught products are Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified.

Ecosystem impacts of aquaculture
Nomad Foods sources 95,5% of its aquaculture products from Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) certified farms which addresses issues of animal welfare and antibiotics use. Moreover, the company has a target that addresses animal welfare issues (in its supply chain where relevant), and reports progress against the targets.

Traceability systems and commitments for seafood products and aquaculture feed ingredients
Nomad Foods discloses that 98% of the company’s portfolio is either Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)- and Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC)-certified, with a commitment to achieve 100% by 2025. These certifications have a combined chain of custody certification scheme which ensures some level of traceability is in place for those seafood products.

No leading practices were identified in the social responsibility area.

Respect human rights
Nomad Foods has a policy statement committing it to respect human rights, along with a grievance mechanism accessible to all workers and all external stakeholders who may be adversely impacted by the company. Moreover, it describes the process for identifying human rights risks and impacts in its supply chain and publicly discloses the results of its human rights risk assessments.

Provide and promote decent work
Nomad Foods discloses a policy statement committing it to respect its operations and supply chain workers’ health and safety and provides evidence of monitoring suppliers’ compliance. Furthermore, it reports the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by gender and by age group.

Act ethically
Nomad Foods has a public commitment to protecting personal data and discloses a global tax strategy. Moreover, it has an executive-level individual who has responsibility for its global tax strategy. The company also has a policy on prohibiting bribery and corruption and includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its business relationships’ contracts, along with a grievance mechanism for stakeholder complaints.

Accountability for sustainability strategy
Nomad Foods 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.

Stakeholder engagement
Nomad Foods has an opportunity to disclose an overview of the issues raised by each stakeholder group during its engagement activities.

Lobbying and advocacy
Nomad Foods has an opportunity to disclose a list of trade associations of which it is a member. Furthermore, it could provide a clear and detailed framework for assessing the alignment of these trade associations with its sustainability targets and report any (potential) misalignments between the lobbying activities of its trade associations and its sustainability targets.

No risks and opportunities were identified in the ecosystems area.

Traceability systems and commitments for seafood products and aquaculture feed ingredients
The company has an opportunity to strengthen its commitment to traceability by endorsing the GDST standards and disclosing a timebound workplan for its implementation in its operations and supply chain.

Risk-based approach to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing
Nomad Foods disclosed that 99% of its seafood products are Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified mitigating risks of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in those fisheries. However, Nomad Foods has an opportunity to demonstrate that it also conducts IUU risks assessments across 100% of its supply chain how its mitigate any identified IUU risks.

Disclosure of the source of seafood products and marine feed ingredients
Nomad Foods has a consumer facing tracing tool for some of its brands which provides an overview of some of its seafood products, including information about species and geographic location. However, the company has an opportunity to disclose a full overview of the sources of all its products, including additional information such as management status, geographic location, species and production method.

Forced Labour
Nomad Foods has an opportunity to disclose forced labour requirements for its operations and supply chain such as a prohibition to pay recruitment fees, to retain workers’ personal documents or to restrict workers’ freedom of movement. Further, it could provide evidence of how it builds the capacity of its suppliers to prevent forced labour impacts.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
Nomad Foods has an opportunity to demonstrate how it improves fishers’ income resilience through its procurement practices and supply chain relationships. Also, it has an opportunity to demonstrate how it identifies living income benchmarks and assesses living income gaps for some regions or commodities.

Working and living conditions on board fishing vessels
No publicly available evidence suggests that Nomad Foods commits to ensure decent working and living conditions on board fishing vessels. The company could improve its performance by monitoring working and living conditions on its fishing vessels, disclosing the results of its monitoring, and demonstrating how it mitigates risks and implements improvements where needed.

Respect human rights
Nomad Foods 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 and to extend this expectation to its business relationships. Furthermore, while it has conducted a materiality assessment, it has an opportunity to disclose how it identifies human rights risks and impacts in its operations. Additionally, the company could establish a global system to address its salient human rights issues by implementing preventive, mitigative, or remedial measures.

Provide and promote decent work
Nomad Foods has an opportunity to strengthen its commitment to its workers’ wellbeing by setting a time-bound target for ensuring all workers receive a living wage and detailing the living wage determination methodology in the regions where it operates. Furthermore, while it has set expectations on the wage paid by its suppliers, it has an opportunity to clarify if such wage is enough to maintain a decent standard of living for the workers and their family and to disclose its strategies to support the payment. Additionally, the company could translate its commitment statements on gender equality and women’s empowerment into a public policy document and establish a related time-bound target. It could also disclose that it has at least 30% women on the Board of Directors and reports the ratio of the basic salary and remuneration of women to men in its total direct operations for each category.

Act ethically
Nomad Foods has an opportunity to establish a process to identify risks and impacts related to bribery and corruption in specific locations or activities covering its own operations. Furthermore, the company can demonstrate ethical conduct by publishing a policy statement that outlines its approach to lobbying and political engagement, emphasizes its non-participation in political contributions (not limited to political donation), or alternatively, states the criteria of exceptions. It could also transparently disclose all lobbying expenditures.