Mars Food has unveiled a new five-year strategy that will see it reformulate products and introduce labelling initiatives aimed at helping combat rising obesity levels.
The strategy, named Mars Health and Wellbeing Ambition, focuses on the company's meal-oriented brands Masterfoods, Dolmio, Kan Tong and Uncle Ben's.
In addition to adding Health Star Ratings, Mars plans to highlight the difference between ‘everyday meals’ and ‘occasional products’ on-pack.
Recipes on Mars product labels, and in-store promotions, will meet nutrition criteria and encourage an increased consumption of vegetables, whole grains and lean proteins.
Two examples of the changes include sodium reduction in Dolmio tomato-based pasta sauce, and sugar reduction in Kan Tong sweet and sour sauce.
Mars will also start rolling out Health Star Ratings on its products from early 2017, and these will extend across ranges by mid-2018.
