At Unilever, we're dedicated to leading the way in creating comprehensive nutritional standards. Going beyond traditional nutrient-focused measures that aim to limit salt, sugar, SAFA and calories covered under the Unilever Science-based Nutrition Criteria, we've additionally introduced the innovative Positive Nutrition Standards (PNS).
Crafting these standards was a significant challenge, as there was no established framework for setting quantitative positive standards for food products. However, our Global Diet & Health team successfully addressed the challenge and defined the Positive Nutrition Standards (PNS), which were implemented in 2021.
The PNS are a set of standards, designed to enhance nutrients and ingredients beneficial for both people and planet, aligning with WHO dietary guidelines & Codex claims guidance. They are the basis for our commitment to double the number of products sold that deliver positive nutrition by 2025.
Recently the team modelled the potential impact of the PNS on vegetable, wholegrain and fibre intake using data from the US NHANES 2017-2018 survey, assuming that foods consumed would be reformulated to meet the standards.
The results of this modelling showed a projected increase of 30% in fibre intake, over 50% for vegetables and even double the intake of wholegrain. These findings show that reformulation towards the PNS is impactful, moving intakes closer to recommendations.
Read more about the setting of the standards and the impact modelling in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Nutrition.
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