Magazine: For healthier consumers: voluntary pledges made by food companies

After six months of preparation the Federation of Hungarian Food Industries (ÉFOSZ) published its scheme of voluntary pledges. Already 20 companies have joined the initiative who have made 70 pledges. President Tamás Éder told at the press conference that in the last decade member companies did a lot to contribute to Hungarian consumers’ balanced diet with their products, e.g. by reducing their salt and trans fat content. ÉFOSZ secretary Réka Szöllősi introduced the main pledges, which include helping consumers cut their salt and saturated fat intake, the reduction of trans fat content of 80 percent of products to less than 1.5 percent before 31 December 2019, advertising products in accordance with the EU Pledge guidelines and organising and supporting programmes that popularise a physically active lifestyle. Unilever was among the companies which joined in the ÉFOSZ pledges. Managing director András Gyenes told at the press conference that they had made six pledges. In 2010 the at international level the company started implementing a long-term sustainability strategy worldwide, the goal is to double sales while not putting a bigger burden on neither society nor the environment. There are three major goals and nine pledges, for instance by the end of 2015 they are going to indicate nutritional value information per unit on 90 percent of Unilever products.