Today Nestlé Central and West Africa announces its commitments towards 2020 to help people cook the difference with Maggi.
The iconic Maggi brand is on a mission to support home cooks with healthier and tastier choices, by simplifying ingredients lists, reducing salt and increasing micronutrient fortification. With 4600 food portions around the world prepared every second with Maggi, the changes will have a major positive impact.
At the forefront of this drive is the commitment to reshape Maggi’s products to emphasize the use of familiar and common ingredients that people know and have at home.
Nestlé is also continuing to lower salt in the Maggi range. This will contribute to help people in their efforts of reducing their salt intake, meeting WHO recommendations and then reducing risks associated with high blood pressure.
Fortification is a means Maggi uses, as it champions a healthy diet, to help prevent malnutrition in countries where daily consumption of essential micronutrients, is lacking. In 2016, Nestlé sold 65 billion of fortified servings in Central and West Africa and Maggi delivers over 100 million iron fortified cubes daily to 78 million households in Central and West Africa.
Committed to Simply Good in CWAR by 2020
In Central and West Africa, where fortified Maggi stock cubes and other products are a staple for many households, the Maggi “Simply Good” summarises the commitments of the iconic Brand to help cook the difference. In addition to the strong commitments on improving ingredients, Nestlé in Central and West Africa will highlight nutritional challenges by engaging with government authorities, civil society and consumers.
In Central and West Africa Region, 100% of Maggi products will be made with more common and familiar ingredients that consumers love and suiting local tastes and food cultures.
In addition to the iron fortification, the company will continue to improve the nutritional profile of its products, reducing by 22% the salt content in its Maggi tablets and cubes in the region.
The new and improved Maggi products are already finding their way on to shelves in Senegal where Nestlé was the first company offering individuals and families Maggi products with lower salt.
Along with the health commitments made, Maggi is also dedicated to championing food habits that have a positive impact. On-pack and online support give consumers handy recipes for healthy and tasty everyday home cooking. Local events (cooking caravans, cooking academies, educational programs…) across the region teach current consumers and new generations how to cook healthily on a budget and reduce food waste. We will engage directly with 50 million women face to face or through social media in activities related to nutrition, in the Central and West Africa region.
‘’Consumer expectations are changing, they want products with common ingredients they know, minimal processing, natural or organic and ideally locally produced. Our company has a role to play in contributing to the needs of the society’’ said Dominique Allier, Business Executive Officer Culinary for Nestlé Central and West Africa. ‘’Driven by our purpose that is enhancing quality of life and contributing to a healthier future, Maggi brand is a key lever to achieve our ambition through strong and bold commitments in Central and West Africa Region’’, he added.
‘’To do so, Maggi is reorganizing its supply chain to privilege local sourcing of ingredients; a careful selection of each ingredients will uphold the quality of Maggi products and meet the homemade cooking standards of our consumers around the world: trusted, tasty and good for you’’ Dominique added.
The company will enrol 30.000 cassava and soya farmers in its training program and enable the local sourcing of 100% of its needs in soya beans and cassava flour.
Maggi is committed to create more value for the society and the environment by reducing the weight of our Maggi wrappers by 13% in the region, which will represent around 300t reduction of packaging material by 2020.
The work done with the 300,000 ‘’mammies’’ (Maggi-sellers) in Central and West Africa will continue around the support through micro-enterprise management and access to health through vaccination program.