Nearly 75% of General Mills' U.S. Retail Sales Volume Nutritionally Improved

General Mills says it has improved the health profile of 73 percent of its U.S. retail sales volume since 2005, which includes enhancing nutrition such as increasing protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals, or reducing limiters such as calories, sodium, sugar and fat.

In fiscal 2013, the company claims it improved more than 20 percent of its U.S. retail sales volume and the nutritional improvements touched all General Mills U.S. retail platforms, including Baking, Cereal, Dairy, Meals and Snacks.

Reductions in sodium and calories, and increases in whole grain were among the main health improvements General Mills achieved in fiscal 2013. As with past years, all reported improvements were significant, meaning a 10 percent or more improvement was achieved.

“Health is a core growth strategy for the company,” said Maha Tahiri, General Mills’ chief health and wellness officer who oversees the Bell Institute of Health and Nutrition. “Since General Mills began tracking health improvements in fiscal 2005, we have made considerable progress.”

“Today, we can point to more than 750 products, both new and reformulated, that have been influenced by our health metric criteria, spanning our entire portfolio and accounting for nearly three quarters of our fiscal 2013 U.S. Retail sales volume,” she added.

General Mills says in fiscal 2013 it continued to make strong progress towards its goal of reducing sodium, on average, by 20 percent in its top 10 categories by 2015. The sodium reduction effort represents about 40 percent of the company’s U.S. retail portfolio — everything from snacks to soups to side dishes. Improvements include sodium reductions of at least 10 percent in several canned Green Giant vegetable offerings, as well as a number of Suddenly Salads and Helper dinners.

Meaningful calorie reductions also contributed to the overall Health Metric progress, the company says. A notable calorie reduction occurred in Yoplait Light, which was reduced to 90 calories. General Mills also introduced a new lower calorie dairy option — Yoplait Greek 100, with 100 calories and a Weight Watchers PointsPlus® value of two points per serving.

Given that 95 percent of Americans still aren’t getting enough whole grain in their diets, General Mills says increasing whole grain continues to be a focus area, which has led to progress in incorporating whole grain across its portfolio of products.

In September, investors asked General Mills to take responsibility for recycling its post-consumer packaging waste, including a policy which shifts responsibility for packaging waste from taxpayers and governments to producers known as extended producer responsibility (EPR). That same month, General Mills was named to the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index (DJSI) by S&P Dow Jones Indices and investment specialist RobecoSAM, after demonstrating best-in-class performance against numerous sustainability metrics.