Nestle’s New Fortified Milks Provide Added Nutritional Value in Brazil

According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, children in Brazil only consume one out of the three recommended daily servings of fruit.

Oct 31 2011 --- Nestlé has launched two new ready-to-drink, dairy-based beverages in Brazil to help parents increase their children’s daily consumption of iron and essential vitamins.

Ninho Fruti is made with real fruit and provides 32%, 31% and 40% of children’s recommended daily intakes of vitamins A, C and vitamin D respectively.

It also provides 30% of the recommended daily intake of iron.

Ninho Baixa Lactose is a fortified low lactose drink suitable for the 10% of children in Brazil who are lactose intolerant. It is enriched with iron and vitamins A, C and D.

Both new products belong to Nestlé’s Ninho brand; the fortified ready-to-drink milk introduced to Brazil by the company in 2009.

According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, children in Brazil only consume one out of the three recommended daily servings of fruit.

Nutritional ‘plus’

Around the world, Nestlé aims to enhance the nutritional value of its products at the same time as improving their taste.

Each year, the company assesses a selection of products from its 18 food and beverage categories with consumers through its unique ‘60/40+’ programme.

The programme firstly requires at least 60% of a large consumer sample to prefer the Nestlé product in a blind taste test against its direct competitors.

Secondly, where relevant, it requires the product to offer an additional nutritional ‘plus’.

New Nestlé products launched last year as a result of 60/40+ testing included Maggi Masala-ae-Magic in India and Uncle Toby’s Fruit Fix in Australia.

Maggi Masala-ae-Magic is a spice mix fortified with iron, iodine, and vitamin A aimed at lower income consumers. Uncle Toby’s Fruit Fix is a lunchbox snack for children providing one serving of fruit. It is a source of vitamin C, folate and fibre.

Salt reduction

Nestlé was the first company in the food industry to introduce comprehensive policies for the systematic reduction of specific nutrients that are considered to be detrimental to health when consumed in excess.

These policies are also designed to develop products which offer consumers additional essential nutrients or nutritious ingredients.

Nestlé made significant salt reductions across a range of mainstream product categories around the world between 2005 and 2010, either by adapting existing items or introducing new ones.

For example, the company reduced salt in its popular Maggi Masala Noodles in India by 30% and reduced salt in its Maggi bouillon cubes in the Netherlands by 33%.

Special ranges of Herta brand Knacki sausages and Le Bon Paris cooked ham in France offer 25% less salt than the market average, and a new Benebien bouillon range in the Dominican Republic has 25% less salt.

Cereal Partners Worldwide, Nestlé’s joint venture with General Mills, has also introduced healthier cereal choices over the past five years.

It has reduced sugar by more than 7,000 tonnes and salt by nearly 900 tonnes in its products worldwide, while adding more than three billion servings of whole grain.
New study

A leading American think tank recently reported that Nestlé and other food and beverage companies which increase the nutritional value of their products performed better than those which don’t.

The study by the Hudson Institute looked at sales figures and other financial data from the world’s 15 largest food and beverage companies between 2007 and 2011.

It found that Nestlé and other companies which had a higher percentage of sales of products that offered additional nutritional value had higher operating profits, higher shareholder returns and scored more highly in reputational rankings.

The study cited Nestlé Nutrition’s Gerber infant food business in the United States as a case study.

Gerber's products for infants and young children include ‘yoghurt melts’, fruit puree packages and whole grain snacks.

The company also offers dairy products with Omega 3 essential unsaturated fatty acids and pasta made from whole grain.