Sixteen food manufacturers operating in the US who pledged to cut 1.5 trillion calories from their products by next year have exceeded their target by over four times, an independent study has claimed.
Companies including Campbell Soup Co., Mars Inc and Nestle removed 6.4trn calories between 2007 and 2012, health philanthropic group the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation said today (9 January).
Go deeper with GlobalData
The manufacturers were among a group of over 40 companies that launched the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation in 2009 to try to tackle obesity. A year later, sixteen of those firms made the pledge on calories.
James Marks, director of the health group at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said the reduction had proved “extremely encouraging”.
However, Marks said the work to lower calories must continue and called on other companies to join their peers in the effort.
“They must sustain that reduction, as they’ve pledged to do, and other food companies should follow their lead to give Americans the lower-calorie foods and beverages they want,” Marks said.
