CAMDEN, NJ. — Campbell Soup Co. has updated its nutrition metrics to set higher health and wellness standards for new and existing products, according to the company’s 2022 Corporate Responsibility Report. These new metrics are built upon three main tenets: focusing on nutritious foods, reducing negative nutrients and quantifying product affordability and accessibility. This system represents an effort by Campbell Soup to concretely track health and wellness progress to share with stakeholders, according to the company.
The updated reporting system, which sets standards for nutrition focused foods, logs nutritional content based on the categories “Cannot Exceed” as well as “AND Must Meet at Least 1,” both according to product serving size. The “Cannot Exceed” category sets limits for “negative nutrients,” such as calories, saturated fat, trans fat, sodium and added sugar. The “AND Must Meet at Least 1” category lists “positive nutrients,” including protein, fiber, vitamins A, C and D, potassium, calcium, iron, vegetables, fruit and whole grains. Similar to the negative nutrient list, Campbell Soup provides daily value serving suggestions for each positive nutrient. In Campbell Soup’s current portfolio, 56% of products meet the criteria for nutrition focused foods, according to the company.
Through product innovation and renovation, Campbell Soup hopes to implement nutrition guidelines across the company’s entire portfolio to reduce the presence of negative nutrients. The guidelines include category-specific limits for the previously listed negative nutrients but are less stringent than the corporate reporting nutrition metrics, according to the company. Categories for negative nutrient measurement include beverage, soup/stock/broth, simple meals, salsa and dips, sauce, bread and rolls, sweet snacks and savory snacks. With the guidelines, Campbell Soup is implementing nutrition expectations across the company’s culinary and nutrition teams, to re-establish product development standards. Currently, 69% of Campbell Soup’s current portfolio meets the updated product development guidelines, according to the company.
The final mission of the company’s updated nutritional standards is to track accessibility and affordability. Doing so, Campbell Soup hopes to home in on the needs of economically insecure consumers and expand access to high nutrition/low cost meal options. One area this can already be seen is in the nutrition focused food category, which averages just 62¢ per serving while the company’s entire portfolio averages 65¢ per serving. Additionally, 71% of Campbell Soup’s meals and beverages meet the requirements for at least one federal nutrition program, including WIC Eligible Foods, SNAP Staple Foods for Retailer Eligibility and USDA Smart Snacks, and about 53% of the company’s family meal recipes cost less than $3 per serving. To expand access to meal planning, which may lead to less food waste and easier budgeting, the company created an online three-day meal planning resource, which may be found here. Highlights of the meal plan include incorporating meatless and plant-based dishes into the cooking rotation and eating fresh fruits and vegetables.
Campbell Soup already has begun implementing these health and wellness metrics with some of its newer brands, including Well Yes! soups. Well Yes! soups debuted five years ago as a better-for-you option and continue to expand according to consumer needs. In 2021 new varieties were released that included trending ingredients such as cauliflower, bone broth and chickpeas. Similarly, the Campbell V8 brand launched two new on-trend vegetable juice flavors last year — carrot ginger and beet ginger. Other health initiatives have been undertaken across Campbell Soup brands, including Prego and Pacific Foods, which have launched their own plant-based and alternative dairy products in the past year.
