Improving the Health and Well-Being of Heinz Communities
While Heinz has a passion for making good food, we’re equally passionate about making a difference. As one of the world’s largest food companies, we seek to help to address some of the world’s growing health and wellness concerns. Today, obesity has reached epidemic proportions globally, yet millions of children in the developing world are malnourished.
According to the World Health Organization, more than 300 million people are obese and therefore at risk for serious health complications and the rate of childhood obesity is on the rise. But in the developing world, many children don’t have the food they need. More than three and one half million children under age five die each year in developing countries due to maternal and child malnutrition.
Turning these tides will require close collaboration among public health authorities, nutrition researchers, food suppliers and consumers. At Heinz, we’re doing our part by helping people of all ages to live healthier lives through better nutrition. We’re advancing the knowledge of nutrition through scientific research and we are dedicated to making wholesome foods, including varieties with less sodium, sugar and without trans fats.
The H.J. Heinz Company Foundation is developing and distributing micronutrients to nourish children in the developing world, through the Heinz Micronutrient Campaign.
Heinz also is educating consumers worldwide about nutritional food choices and supporting programs that promote physical activity and help people lead healthier lives. In addition, we are making the important connection between nutrition and taste.
Our Global Nutrition Team includes 23 members in nearly a dozen countries who influence product development and shape health and wellness policies at Heinz. The team also works with accredited scientific experts and regulatory bodies with the goal of reflecting the latest advances in nutrition knowledge and scientific consensus in our food and food ingredients. We also address ingredients of concern (particularly sodium, saturated fat and sugar/calories), adding more goodness into our products and increasing functional benefits for our consumers. The team’s knowledge helps encourage healthful product-line extensions and equips brand managers with necessary information to proactively make health and wellness an overall part of every brand’s strategy.
We have also established a Global Health and Wellness Task Force, which partners with advisory groups that give us a range of external health and wellness viewpoints. As a result of both the Task Force and the Heinz Global Nutrition Team, we are offering consumers around the world more choices than ever to address their personal dietary and nutritional needs. For example:
- For people looking for ways to manage their weight, we offer Weight Watchers® from Heinz® and Weight Watchers® Smart Ones® products that fulfill nutrition needs for every time of the day – breakfast, lunch, snacking, dinner and dessert.
- For infants, toddlers and children, we have a wide variety of products ranging from infant formula and jarred baby foods to snacks, juices and cereals that offer fortified, age-appropriate nutrition.
- For people with specific nutritional requirements and preferences, Heinz offers varieties that are gluten free, Kosher, all natural, reduced sugar, reduced salt or reduced fat, as well as organic foods.
Heinz goes to extensive lengths to make sure the healthy food that we make tastes great. All new products or formulations must receive significantly high scores in taste tests before we bring any product to market. As a result, consumers consistently give our products high marks for taste.
