Positive nutrition and fortification

Nature’s kitchen

The nutritious ingredients in many of our products provide the micronutrients, protein or fibre that people need as part of a balanced diet. We include seasonal fruits and vegetables, as well as and pulses, nuts and healthy oils which we use in our Kissan, Knorr, Hellmann’s range of products.

By the end of 2022, Unilever aimed to provide more than 200 billion servings with at least one of the five key micronutrients, vitamin A, D, iodine, iron and zinc. We’re proud that we achieved this commitment, delivering an incredible 235.6 billion servings by the end of Q3 2022, with India being the leading contributor with 83 billion servings.

Future Foods

We’re raising nutritional standards across our Nutrition and Ice Cream portfolios through our Future Foods commitments, which are part of our Unilever Compass goals for positive nutrition.

By end 2020, we achieved this target and the Nutrition and Ice cream (N & I) portfolio in India had doubled the number of products sold that deliver positive nutrition. By end 2022, prior to the divestment of Annapurna & Captain Cook, 43% of the N&I portfolio in India was in line with our Positive Nutrition Standards.

Locking in goodness

We’re also busy creating new products to enhance the vegetable content on people’s plates,

By picking vegetables and grains at their peak and drying them gently, we’re able to lock in their nutrient goodness.

Our Knorr dried vegetable soups, for instance has Vegetables like tomatoes, leeks, cabbage and onions.

But it’s not just Knorr that’s helping people to access nutritious ingredients.

More new products, more positive nutrition

In 2023 in India, we launched Millet Chocolate Horlicks, made with the goodness of wholegrain multi millets, which are a natural source of calcium, iron, protein and fibre – all critical for children’s growth.

Kissan Peanut Butter in India

Peanuts contain lots of nutrients, and because they are an excellent source of protein and zinc in particular, this makes them a great choice as a plant-based protein for growing kids, as well as adults.

In India, diets are cereal-centric and survey data suggests that over decades, the Indian diet has become lower on protein content. We have introduced Kissan Peanut Butter, so now the protein content of a typical Indian breakfast can be increased by over 50% just by including one serving (or two tablespoons/30 g) of Kissan Peanut Butter.

Our peanuts are handpicked from the farms of Gujarat, which are famous for their quality of peanuts. Kissan means 'farmer' and Kissan as a brand believes strongly in standing by farmers.

The superior grade peanuts are perfectly roasted to give a smooth and creamy texture. And the peanut butter meets our Nutrition Standards and contains no added artificial colours, flavours or preservatives.

In 2022, we followed this up with Kissan Hazelnut Choco Peanut Spread, which is compliant with our Positive Nutrition Standards, rich in protein (containing 70% peanut butter) and is a source of fibre. The spread contains 50% less sugar than the leading chocolate spread brand.

Micronutrient deficiency is needlessly harming health

Despite efforts to eat well and combat malnutrition around the globe, around a quarter of the world’s population is still affected by micronutrient deficiency. From anaemia to pregnancy-related issues, health is damaged simply by the lack of a few micronutrients, such as iron and iodine. In India, for example, 57% of women of reproductive age and 59% of adolescent girls are anaemic as reported in National Family Health survey-5 2019-21.

The good news is it’s fixable.

The WHO and leading economists have identified food fortification as one of the most cost-effective approaches to meeting people’s nutritional needs. Fortification is when small and safe amounts of essential micronutrients are added to foods that are eaten regularly.

We’ve prioritised both fortification and positive nutrition to help people get the nutrients they need.

Fortification: a force for good

Every single day, we sell millions of servings of fortified products, including Nutrition Drinks such as Horlicks and Boost.

These servings include at least 15% of the recommended daily amount (as per Dietary Guidelines for Indians, RDA based on age and gender) for critical nutrients, in line with FSSAI Advertising and Claims regulations. We offer fortified foods at an affordable price, develop products using good ingredients like vegetables, fruits, dairy and vegetable oils to support more diverse diets, and promote nutritious cooking – we’ve set out our latest position statement on fortification (PDF 144.6 KB).

In India, all our food products using salt uses only iodised salt in them in compliance with the FSS (Prohibition and Restriction on Sales) Regulations, 2011.

We’ve produced a series of infographics (PDF | 6MB) explaining how we’re providing essential micronutrients, to help other food companies looking to fortify their products. And to step up efforts to tackle malnutrition, we’re pushing for change across the food system. See Our nutrition philosophy and approach for more on our advocacy efforts.

As well as providing the five key micronutrients for better health through our fortified products, we also run programmes to inspire people to cook using our fortified products, and help them achieve better health.

The benefits of tea

Tea is the second most consumed beverage worldwide, next only to water. Scientists agree, tea is one of the healthiest hydration fluids in the world, basis research on health benefits of tea. Being world’s most popular drink, we sell ~80 billion servings of tea every year. Lipton and Brooke Bond are our tea brands that deliver both green and black tea in the country.

We know that tea uniquely contains both theanine and caffeine and is a rich source of flavonoids which are linked to health benefits like a healthy heart.

Brooke Bond offers high quality and carefully blended tea that makes a delicious cup of phytonutrient rich beverage.

Brooke Bond Red Label Natural care amplifies the benefits of tea by bringing together the wisdom of Ayurveda and the inherent goodness of tea. Our Red Label Natural Care tea has the perfect mix of five Ayurvedic ingredients - Tulsi, Ashwagandha, Mulethi, Ginger & Cardamom. With its clinically proven immunity enhancing benefit, Red Label Natural Care tea has become a trusted product delivering taste and contributing to wellbeing.

Lipton SipNDigest Tea, is a soothing blend of green tea with real, power-packed ingredients - ginger, tulsi and rock salt which are traditionally known to improve metabolism and aid in digestion.

Ice cream treats with goodness

All our kids’ edible ice or treats comply with Unilever’s Science based Nutrition Criteria. This means that they are all limited in the amount of sugar, calories and saturated fat they can contain. All our kid-friendly products have an energy content of less than 110 kcal, a sugar content of less than 12g per serving, and a SAFA content of less than 3g per serving so that kids can still enjoy an occasional treat that’s limited in calories, and some provide goodness that meet our positive nutrition commitment.

As well as being responsibly developed, all our children’s ice creams are responsibly communicated and responsibly advertised.