Ramon_Laguarta, CEO PepsiCo
Image: Amanda_Taraska
PepsiCo has announced two new ambitious nutrition goals as part of PepsiCo Positive (pep+) – the company’s end-to-end strategic transformation – which aim to reduce sodium and deliver important sources of nutrition in the foods for consumers.
With sodium reduction, PepsiCo aims for at least 75% of its global convenient foods portfolio volume to meet or be below category sodium targets by 2030.
Excess sodium intake is a leading risk factor for diet-associated disease and disability, prompting global public health authorities to call on the food industry to reduce sodium in their products. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends less than 2000mg of sodium per day for adults.
PepsiCo is setting a new sodium reduction goal, with category targets that consider guidance from public health experts including the World Health Organization and are approximately 15-30% lower than the company’s current target for key convenient food categories.
The company said the new sodium goal aims for a 15% sodium reduction in its U.S. Lay’s Classic Potato Chips, which would result in a sodium level of 140mg per 28g serving. According to the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the sodium intake in daily diets from savoury snacks is currently around 3%.
Pepsico aims to deliver 145 billion portions of diverse ingredients annually in its global convenient foods portfolio by 2030. Each portion will provide approximately 10% of the suggested daily amount of a diverse ingredient (based on published dietary guidelines for select counties, WHO Healthy Diet Fact Sheet, and Eat Lancet Planetary Healthy Diet report).
“We are in a constant cycle of innovation to reimagine the foods we make and how we make them so we can bring better choices to our consumers, without ever compromising on taste,” said René Lammers, executive vice president and chief science officer for PepsiCo. “Consumers enjoy our products more than one billion times a day, which provides an opportunity – and the privilege – to have an impact. We set a high bar to improve the nutritional profile of our products, and these new goals reaffirm our ambitions.”
Lammers continued, “An industrywide approach is necessary to meaningfully reduce sodium intake and introduce important sources of nutrition to help diversify diets. And it’s important for us to take a leadership position to help be a catalyst for change.”
