The world’s largest food company, Nestle, has acknowledged that more than 60 per cent of its mainstream food and drinks products do not meet a “recognized definition of health” and that “some of our categories and products will never be ‘healthy no matter how much we renovate”, the Financial Times reported. A presentation circulated among the top executives this year, seen by the Financial Times, said only 37 percent of Nestle’s food and beverages by revenues, excluding products such as pet food and specialized medical nutrition, achieve a rating above 3.5 under Australia’s health star rating system.

This system scores food out of five stars and is used in research by international groups such as the Access to Nutrition Foundation. As per the report, Nestle, the maker of KitKat, Maggi and Nescafe, describes the 3.5 star threshold as a “recognized definition of health.” The report said within its overall food and drink portfolio, about 70 percent of Nestle’s food products failed to meet that threshold, the presentation said, along with 96 per cent of beverages — excluding pure coffee — and 99 per cent of Nestle’s confectionery and ice cream portfolio.

Water and dairy products scored better, with 82 per cent of water and 60 percent of dairy products meeting the threshold. “We have made significant improvements to our products [but] our portfolio still underperforms against external definitions of health in a landscape where regulatory pressure and consumer demands are skyrocketing,” the presentation said.