By Simon Jessop

LONDON (Reuters – On Tuesday, $12.4 trillion worth of investors called on governments and corporations to make a greater effort to encourage healthier food and beverage to solve what they called a global nutrition crisis.

In a pledge made at the Tokyo Nutrition for Growth Summit in 2021, 53 investors stated that poor diets were a major cause of mortality and diseases and have economic and societal consequences.

PIMCO Asset Management (UBS Asset Management) and UBS Asset Management (PIMCO) urged government policy makers to adopt fiscal and regulatory measures that support healthy packaged foods, and help them meet nutrition targets set out by the World Health Organisation.

In the meantime, food and beverage companies were asked to take three steps. They would report annually on their healthy product sales and share in overall product mix.

The companies should also use an independently developed system to define what constitutes a healthy product, and adopt the commitments laid out in the document ‘Investor Expectations on Nutrition, Diets and Health’ https://accesstonutrition.org/app/uploads/2020/06/Investor-Expectations-on-Nutrition-Diets-and-Health-FINAL.pdf produced by the investors with the support of non-profit the Access to Nutrition Initiative.

The investors said they would engage with the 20 listed companies in the ATNI Global Index 2021 https://accesstonutrition.org/index/global-index-2021, including Nestle and Unilever (NYSE:), as appropriate, or ask fund managers which invest on their behalf to do so.

The two men stated that they will share the details of their conversations with companies in quarterly and annual reports, which can be used to inform their investment decisions.

Frank Wagemans (Senior Engagement Specialist, Achmea Investment Management) stated, “The investor promise illustrates the urgency required by companies, investors, and governments to accelerate progress regarding global nutrition.”

“Investors not only understand the macroeconomic impact nutrition has on the economy, but also see the great societal consequences of malnutrition as a material financial risk to the society.”

According to ATNI, the costs of poor nutrition amount to approximately 5% of global income per year or $3.5 trillion.