PepsiCo Sets New Goals for Convenient Foods Portfolio
PURCHASE, N.Y. — PepsiCo Inc. is setting two new ambitious nutrition goals as part of PepsiCo Positive (pep+), the company's end-to-end strategic transformation.
The beverage and food maker is aiming to reduce sodium and purposefully deliver important sources of nutrition in the foods consumers are reaching for, PepsiCo stated.
Sodium Reduction
PepsiCo's goal is for at least 75 percent of its global convenient foods portfolio volume to meet or be below category sodium targets by 2030.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends less than 2,000 milligrams of sodium per day for adults. PepsiCo is setting a new sodium reduction goal, with category targets that consider guidance from public health experts including WHO and are approximately 15 percent to 30 percent lower than the company's current target for key convenient food categories.
PepsiCo's new sodium goal aims for a 15 percent sodium reduction in U.S. Lay's Classic Potato Chips, which would result in a sodium level of 140 milligrams per 28 grams per serving. According to the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the sodium intake in daily diets from savory snacks is currently around 3 percent.
Diverse Ingredients
Increased consumption of diverse ingredients — such as legumes, whole grains, plant-based proteins, fruits and vegetables, and nuts and seeds — can help promote a more nutritionally diverse diet.
The company aims to deliver 145 billion portions of diverse ingredients annually in its global convenient foods portfolio by 2030. Each portion will provide approximately 10 percent of the suggested daily amount of a diverse ingredient.
"We are in a constant cycle of innovation to reimagine the foods we make and how we make them so we can bring better choices to our consumers, without ever compromising on taste," said René Lammers, executive vice president and chief science officer for PepsiCo. "Consumers enjoy our products more than 1 billion times a day, which provides an opportunity — and the privilege — to have an impact. We set a high bar to improve the nutritional profile of our products, and these new goals reaffirm our ambitions."
Since 2015, PepsiCo has been on a journey to improve its portfolio, charting progress against a set of 2025 nutrition targets, made possible through the efforts of more than 2,600 Research & Development (R&D) associates across 13 R&D centers around the world, including:
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- Innovating on the farm: Agricultural experts partner with farmers to grow potatoes that have the ideal flavor needed to deliver the savory taste consumers enjoy.
- Maintaining taste: Seasoning experts identify ingredients and study salt crystal shapes and sizes to optimize flavor while using less sodium.
- Creating flavor: Food developers design optimal flavors using seasonings, herbs, spices and dairy that contain less sodium overall.
"An industrywide approach is necessary to meaningfully reduce sodium intake and introduce important sources of nutrition to help diversify diets. And it's important for us to take a leadership position to help be a catalyst for change," Lammers added.
Pep+ is an end-to-end transformation program touching virtually every aspect of PepsiCo's business — from how ingredients are grown; to how its iconic portfolio of products are made, moved and sold; to what choices are offered to consumers. Pep+ is the framework through which all actions on setting and working toward ESG targets are driven.
Purchase-based PepsiCo generated more than $86 billion in net revenue in 2022, driven by a complementary beverage and convenient foods portfolio that includes Lay's, Doritos, Cheetos, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Mountain Dew, Quaker and SodaStream.