Portion guidance
Our commitment: Offer guidance on portions for our products
By 2017 – Provide portion guidance on 100% of Nestlé USA food and beverage products.
Our progress
We are committed to helping individuals and families make a shift toward choosing more thoughtful portions. This will allow people to make better choices while continuing to enjoy the foods they love. In 2016, we continued to focus on portion guidance and challenged our brands to deliver reasonable portions through product form, pack concept, and/ or on-pack communication. We offer portion guidance options across our portfolio, with 95% of Nestlé USA products delivering portion guidance by the end of 2016, nearing our goal of 100%. To further support our commitment, we have created a Thoughtful Portion™ box in the Nestlé Nutritional Compass® to provide a consistent location for all relevant products to provide an on-pack portion suggestion. This portion suggestion includes a visual representation and may also include a portion-supporting tip. The addition of the Thoughtful Portion™ box began in 2015 and can be found on about two-thirds of our products.
In 2016, we conducted initial consumer research on the impact of portion messaging on-pack in the Nutritional Compass. We found that one in five respondents were already aware of portion guidance on-pack, and a majority reported that they felt the information was clear and relevant. Many found the information useful and personally relevant.
Various U.S. Nestlé brands are MyPlate National Strategic Partners through the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion’s Nutrition Communicators Network. Through this partnership, Nestlé brands share nutrition information to promote the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Nestlé brands such as LEAN CUISINE and GERBER take the lead on communicating these messages in a variety of ways, from on-pack tips on how to have a more-balanced meal with our products to sharing MyPlate messages via our brands’ social media channels.
Related content
Balance Your Plate on a Budget
*Institute MG. Overcoming obesity: An initial economic analysis. 2014.
Notes: Relevant products means to exclude exemptions (Nestlé Nutrition, Nestlé Health Science, Nestlé Professional, Nestlé Purina Petcare, plain water/coffee/tea, Confectionery gifting, Culinary free-dosing and table-top seasonings, and products designed for children below four years of age as other legal considerations are relevant) and where regulations are not allowed.