Health and Nutrition
Mars Food
Mars Food's products are part of daily family meals in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Europe, Russia, South Africa and the United States. Among our 13 brands are household names including UNCLE BEN'S®, DOLMIO®, MASTERFOODS®, EBLY®, SEEDS OF CHANGE®, ROYCO®, SUZI WAN®, KAN TONG® and RARIS®. The two main ingredients in the Mars Food portfolio are rice and tomatoes.
We are looking for ways to make a difference in family diets by making our brands more nutritious and natural, and by using fewer, simpler and more wholesome ingredients. We started by simplifying our DOLMIO® pasta sauce so that it contains only natural ingredients and we went on to reduce sodium in many of our products. We are also innovating to make healthier, more convenient varieties of rice, such as UNCLE BEN'S® Whole Grain White Rice and we are participating in efforts to promote childhood nutrition through our Foodservice range.
Information
Healthy meals are critical to childhood development, and Mars is pursuing a number of initiatives to raise awareness, improve childhood nutrition and reduce obesity:
- In the U.K., Mars Foodservice provides clear nutritional information for each product to schools along with recipe ideas and menu planners to help caterers meet the school nutrition standards. All of Mars Foodservice sauces already meet the 2012 U.K. Food Standards Agency salt-reduction targets.
- In Australia, the MASTERFOODS® brand sponsored the television program "Junior MasterChef". The program, which searches for outstanding novice cooks, makes cooking fun and exciting for the younger generation.
- In the U.K. we have signed up to the government's Public Health Responsibility Deal, recognizing the role we can play in helping people to adopt healthier diets and become more physically active. As part of our participation, we have committed to actively support our workforce lead healthier lives by offering healthy food choices in cafeterias and increased opportunities for physical activity in the workplace.
- In 2011, SEEDS OF CHANGE®, our organic product offering, will give away 100 million of their Certified Organic Seeds to inspire healthy eating through organic gardening. Recipients of the seeds will include Mud Baron, former Green Policy Director of the Los Angeles Unified School District, who promotes school gardens as a way to teach children about nutrition through gardening.
We will provide easy to read Guideline Daily Amount (GDA) labeling on the majority of our global portfolio by the end of 2011 and will continue to incorporate GDA labeling on our full portfolio across all our markets. For more information, see Responsible Marketing.
We also present information and easy-to-prepare low-fat recipes to help people understand what's in our products and how they can contribute to a balanced diet. Our UNCLE BEN'S® website highlights rice as naturally low in fat and gluten free. Our UNCLE BEN'S® rice portfolio includes products which are also a major source of whole grains and complex carbohydrates, and in the U.S. are enriched with B vitamins and iron. We also have local websites, including our EBLY® wheat website in France and our RARIS® grain website in Brazil.
Mars supports efforts to reduce childhood obesity through local education initiatives and partnerships with government. We are involved in many of the same initiatives as Mars Chocolate.
Renovation
In 2007, we renovated our European DOLMIO® Bolognese Pasta Sauce range to simplify ingredients and boost the tomato content. The recipe delivers 10 tomatoes in every jar and uses ingredients that can be found in the average kitchen cupboard. For example, we replaced citric acid with lemon juice because consumers tell us that they prefer and trust natural ingredients they can recognize. A serving of DOLMIO® Bolognese Pasta Sauce provides one of the recommended five daily servings of fruits and vegetables and is a source of lycopene, an antioxidant. In 2011, we will further improve the recipe to use only natural ingredients.
We are committed to reducing sodium levels in Mars Food's products globally by 25 percent by 2015, from a 2007 baseline. We are doing this by participating in government initiatives and agreeing to voluntary reduction commitments in different regions. Our efforts started in the U.K., which has led the world on salt reduction and has the most stringent standards. We are following their leadership in this area and are committed to meeting their standards. The U.K. and U.S. are our largest markets and represent more than half of our overall sales, so by targeting salt reduction in these regions we can have a major impact. While our efforts began in these countries, we voluntarily have committed to reducing salt in our products globally.
For example:
Europe
- We have committed to reduce the sodium content of our products across the EU, based on the criteria set out by the U.K. Food Standards Agency/Department of Health (FSA/DoH). In the U.K., more than 99 percent of our entire portfolio meets the FSA 2010 targets and more than 50 percent of our pasta sauces already meet the 2012 targets. All of our U.K. Foodservice sauces meet the 2012 target.
- Since 2006, in the U.K. we have successfully reduced the salt in our sauces by up to 44 percent, and our UNCLE BEN'S® Express Rice products now contain up to 56-percent less salt.
North America
- In 2010, we joined forces with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's National Salt Reduction Initiative (NSRI), a coalition of cities, states and health organizations campaigning for a 20-percent reduction in salt intake over the next five years.
- Sodium levels in our SEEDS OF CHANGE® pasta and simmer sauces are already lower than the New York City NSRI 2014 salt-reduction targets of 330 milligrams per 100 grams, and our salad dressings are 13-percent lower than the NSRI target of 920 milligrams per 100 grams.
- Mars Food is working with the government initiative Health Canada to develop a national sodium-reduction strategy.
- We reduced sodium in our UNCLE BEN'S® BISTRO EXPRESS® flavored rice products by up to 55 percent between 2006 and 2009. In early 2010, we began working to reduce the sodium content of our UNCLE BEN'S® BISTRO EXPRESS® Entrees by 30 to 45 percent and expect to launch these products early in 2012.
Australia
- Mars Food Australia, together with an industry consortium and government, has committed to reducing the sodium content of pasta sauces, Indian-style sauces and other simmer sauces that exceed 420 milligrams per 100 grams by 15 percent by the end of 2014.
Innovation
In the 1940s we applied the process of parboiling, an innovative patented technique that improves the quality of the rice by partially boiling it. It involves cooking the rice while it is still in its husk, which drives the natural nutrients from the bran layer into the rice grain while also making it easier for consumers to prepare. Today, Mars uses proprietary processes to enhance the nutritional qualities of rice while also improving rice texture and reducing the time needed to cook it at home.
We continue to develop convenient, affordable and innovative products so more people can enjoy their nutritional benefits, and we will continue to develop rice varieties that are nutritionally superior. In 2009, the Center for Science and Public Interest, a U.S.-based industry watchdog, recognized UNCLE BEN'S® Whole Grain Brown Rice as a "super food" due to its nutritional qualities.
In 2010, we launched our most significant innovation to date in the U.S.: UNCLE BEN'S® Whole Grain White Rice. It is the first and only whole grain white rice in the U.S. to combine the familiar taste, texture and cooking time of white rice with whole grain goodness. This product delivers similar nutritional benefits as whole grain brown rice. A serving has, on average, approximately 43 grams of whole grains, the equivalent to eating almost three portions of whole grains, close to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's recommended intake of 48 grams per day. For consumers that prefer white rice, this is a great source of whole grains.
Mars Food has provided regulatory guidance to help develop a Whole Grain Stamp created by the Whole Grains Council and Oldways, a nonprofit that advocates for healthy eating. Today, this stamp appears on products to represent a worldwide standard and to help consumers find healthier choices.
"Mars' early adoption of the Whole Grain Stamp on its UNCLE BEN'S® products helped to establish this packaging symbol as a worldwide standard for helping consumers find healthier choices. By supporting the work of Oldways and the Whole Grains Council and by creating convenient and delicious whole grain products, Mars has contributed to the major increase in whole grain consumption that has taken place since 2005. When companies like Mars show their commitment to providing healthier options, their actions create a 'race to the top' mentality that spurs other companies to do their best."
Cynthia Harriman, Director of Food and Nutrition Strategies, Oldways and the Whole Grains Council
To make it even easier to get healthy grains into the diets of people living fast-paced lifestyles, we have launched several varieties of easy-to-prepare rice around the world. UNCLE BEN'S® BISTRO EXPRESS® and UNCLE BEN'S® READY RICE® products meet people's needs for convenience, affordability and healthy meals.
