Approach

To help build a more sustainable food system and work towards our pep+ (PepsiCo Positive) ambitions, we are striving to make it easier for consumers to choose foods and beverages that prioritize nutrition. This means improving the nutritional profile of our products, aiming to provide simple, clear information on our packaging and leveraging the scale of our brands to drive positive change.

We are working to reduce added sugars in our beverages and reduce sodium and saturated fats in our convenient foods portfolio so that people can continue to enjoy our most-loved brands as part of a healthy and balanced diet. By 2025, our goals are that:

• ≥ 67% of beverage portfolio volume will not exceed 100 Calories from added sugars per 12 ounce serving
• ≥ 75% of foods portfolio volume will not exceed 1.3 milligrams of sodium per Calorie
• ≥ 75% of foods portfolio volume will not exceed 1.1 grams of saturated fat per 100 Calories

By 2030, our aim is:

• At least 75% of our global convenient foods portfolio volume meet or be below category sodium targets;
• Deliver 145 billion portions of diverse ingredients annually in our global convenient foods portfolio; such as legumes, whole grains, plant-based proteins, fruits and vegetables, and nuts and seeds. Each portion will provide approximately 10% of the suggested daily amount of a diverse ingredient;¹ and
• Partner with communities to advance food security and make nutritious food accessible to 50 million people.²

PepsiCo is continuously innovating and expanding its portfolio to make products that provide nutritional benefits. While we are improving the nutritional profile of many of our products by reducing added sugars, sodium and saturated fat, we are also investing in innovation to deliver important food groups and nutrients that contribute to a healthy diet—accelerating a journey we began before the turn of the 21st century. The 2021 launch of our pep+ ambition marks an important milestone on this journey to offer consumers Positive Choices in nutrition. 

Over the years, we have enhanced our portfolio through a combination of reformulation, new product innovation and the acquisition of new brands:

• Through reformulations, we improve the nutritional profile of many of our products by reducing added sugars, sodium and saturated fat.
• Product innovations help to further bolster our portfolio, meeting local consumer tastes and preferences while providing consumers with the nutrition they are looking for.
• Through acquisitions, we have added a number of the world’s most trusted and loved positive nutrition brands to our business. 

We believe that we have an opportunity to positively influence the diets of people around the world through the delivery of great tasting products that also deliver important nutrients and food groups. With a global rise in urban living and “on-the-go” eating habits, consumers are demanding products that are at once nutritious, convenient, great tasting and are trusted from quality and food safety perspectives. Developing and delivering products that deliver these attributes is a priority for PepsiCo.

Learn more about our approach to Nutrition Governance.

PepsiCo nutrition criteria

To help provide nutrition guidance during the development of our beverages and foods, and diversify our product portfolio in the process, we deploy the PepsiCo Nutrition Criteria (PNC). These science-based criteria are based on recommendations for food and nutrient intake from leading global and national nutrition authorities including the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the National Academy of Medicine and national public health authorities.

The PNC set standards for nutrients to limit as well as nutrients and food groups to encourage that are based on the latest science and country-specific dietary guidelines.

• Nutrients to Limit are nutrients that have been well-established as dietary factors that can contribute to the risk of certain non-communicable diseases, when consumed in excess. They include: saturated fat, trans fat, sodium and added sugars.
• Nutrients to Encourage are nutrients that have been identified as being commonly under-consumed in the population. They are sometimes called “shortfall nutrients.” They typically include: fiber, specific vitamins and/or minerals such as iron, vitamin A and calcium.
• Food Groups to Encourage are food groups that have been well-established as contributing to well-balanced diets. They include: fruits, vegetables and whole grains, among others.

These standards are used by our product development teams both to reformulate existing products by improving their nutritional profile and to guide the development of new product innovation. Products are evaluated based on their nutrient profile as well as how they are consumed within the diet.

Nutritious options

With consumers around the world moving toward more nutritious options, we believe that making nutritious ingredients more available to our consumers is vital to the strength of our business. Our portfolio includes products with food groups like grains, fruits and vegetables and those that deliver fiber and/or protein, plus those that are complementary, like water and unsweetened tea, which support hydration without adding calories or nutrients to limit. As we strive to offer consumers more Positive Choices, we will purposely incorporate more diverse ingredients that are important sources of nutrition in both new and existing products. 

Meeting societal nutritional needs

In markets all over the world, we work to create products that are suited to local needs in terms of both taste and nutrition, with brands that consumers trust. For example, our 2020 acquisition of Pioneer Foods in South Africa brought together two like-minded companies focused on building a more sustainable future and investing in communities. Pioneer Foods’ locally relevant product portfolio is a strong complement to our current product line in the region, with strong positions in cereals, juices and other nutritional food staples, including well-known brands like Weet-Bix, Liqui-Fruit, Ceres, Sasko, Safari, Spekko and White Star.

We are striving to achieve our food security goal through a combination of commercial and philanthropic initiatives. In order for commercial products to contribute towards the goal, they must:

• Meet our internal Global Nutrition Criteria for Affordable Nutrition Initiatives, which includes maximum thresholds for nutrients to limit (added sugars, sodium, saturated fats and trans-fat); minimum micronutrient levels to help combat hidden hunger; and food groups and nutrients to encourage such as whole grains and fiber; and
• Be accessible to lower-income consumers at risk of poor nutrition. We determine this at the market level informed by local socioeconomic indicators and externally available data.

For example, Quaker 3 Minutos provides lower-income consumers in Mexico value for their money without compromising nutrition. Offered at an affordable price point, the product is fortified with vitamins and minerals including shortfall nutrients in the country.

Meeting Nutritional Needs through the PepsiCo Foundation

The PepsiCo Foundation is another vehicle for providing nutritious food to the underserved. Through grants to, and collaborative partnerships with, selected nonprofit organizations, the PepsiCo Foundation and its partners provide nutritious food to communities across the globe.

The U.N. estimates that nearly 10% of the world's population suffers from hunger.³ Often, this is not a problem of food scarcity, but rather one of logistics. Food for Good, our signature nutrition operation, was created more than a decade ago by a group of enterprising employees who wanted to leverage the logistical know-how and technical expertise of PepsiCo to help get nutritious food to those in need.

Progress

In 2022, consumers enjoyed more than 8.5 million metric tons of PepsiCo convenient foods, approximately 7 million tons of which were sold in our Top 23 markets (accounting for 86% of our global convenient foods volume). They enjoyed approximately 840 million hectoliters of our beverages, approximately 650 million hectoliters of which were sold in our Top 26 markets (accounting for 78% of our global beverages volume).

Through a combination of product reformulations, innovations and acquisitions, PepsiCo continues to pursue its goal of positive nutrition. At the end of 2022, we were more than 80% of the way towards our 2025 targets in reducing added sugars, sodium and saturated fat across our beverages and convenient foods offerings⁴:

• 56% of our beverage portfolio volume in our Top 26 beverage markets did not exceed 100 Calories from added sugars per 12-ounce serving;
• 68% of our convenient foods portfolio volume in our Top 23 convenient foods markets did not exceed 1.3 mg of sodium per Calorie; and 
• 75% of our convenient foods portfolio volume in our Top 23 convenient foods markets did not exceed 1.1 g of saturated fat per 100 Calories.

In 2023, we introduced two new nutrition-related goals, which reflect updated consumer preferences and consider the latest guidance from public health authorities including the World Health Organization (WHO). We will begin reporting against these goals in 2024.

For detail on our progress against our product goals, see the Sugar, Sodium and Saturated fat pages.

What's next?

The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly impacted the way we do business and has resulted in similar or possibly more intense focus on public health and its relation to nutrition. Accordingly, PepsiCo anticipates that efforts will continue unabated within the food industry to improve the nutritional quality of products and provide more Positive Choices for consumers.