Opinion: CEOs worldwide must drive healthier, more sustainable diets

Today is World Food Day. Leaders in food and nutrition are gathered to discuss the state of food and nutrition security — and we believe CEOs from the food and beverage industry can be drivers of healthy, sustainable diets worldwide. As we know from the 2024 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, global hunger levels have plateaued for three consecutive years, while overweight and obesity are on the rise. Billions of people cannot afford a healthy diet. Against this “perfect storm” of food and nutrition issues, CEOs from the food and beverage industry are in a privileged position to drive change. They make the decisions that steer the innovation, inputs, production, aggregation, trading, processing, and marketing of most of the foods available globally. The time is now. The food and beverage industry has revolutionized what and how we eat — but there is a flip side. Approximately 70% of the world’s processed foods do not fit in a healthy diet. As their consumption increases, every day, people’s diets are becoming more and more unhealthy. The result is a surge in overnutrition and noncommunicable diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. “The private sector stands at a pivotal crossroads. Embracing nutrition is no longer an option but essential. The food industry has the opportunity to start a transformative journey toward promoting healthy and sustainable diets for all.” --— Research puts the direct cost to human health at $11 trillion. Add environmental and economic costs (e.g. climate change, biodiversity loss, water depletion, lost working days) and the final bill comes in at $19 trillion. That’s twice the cost of food production itself. The double burden of malnutrition and overweight, a new and troublesome phenomenon across too many low- and middle-income countries, will add further costs to struggling health systems across many countries. Global business leaders know these numbers don’t make sense and several have started to make a stand and commit to reversing these trends. But we need more. In March 2025, the French government will host the Nutrition for Growth, or N4G, Summit, the flagship international conference on global nutrition hosted every four years. The private sector stands at a pivotal crossroads. Embracing nutrition is no longer an option but essential. The food industry has the opportunity to start a transformative journey toward promoting healthy and sustainable diets for all. New private sector commitments toward 2030 and beyond are needed. The timing couldn’t be better. Debate around ultra-processed foods and the use of weight-loss drugs is heating up. And with the deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals less than six years away, there is a window of opportunity to step up and commit to achieve these following targets by 2030: • Meet the World Health Organization standards for responsible marketing, and end the marketing of unhealthy foods to children under the age of 18 years old. • Increase the proportion of company sales that meet healthy food thresholds. • Price healthier products equal to or lower in price than less-healthy products in all markets. • Implement sustainable production practices and operations aligned with deforestation and greenhouse gas emission targets. • Advocate for ambitious government food strategies that help regulate and incentivize healthier food production and school feeding programs. The world is changing. Consumers are demanding healthier, greener products. And as the 2030 deadline draws ever nearer, the push for better health and sustainable development will only intensify — creating a policy environment that doesn’t just ask for change; it demands it. This is the moment for industry to stay ahead of the curve and deliver the products, choices and prices that the public, health professionals, and governments are asking for. With CEOs at the fore, we can set a new precedent and put the food and beverage industry at the head of a global move to deliver healthier, more sustainable diets for all. We hope that as the critical March 2025 N4G Summit approaches, CEOs at the helm of the largest food and beverage companies publicly agree to targets on healthy and sustainable diets by 2030. Authors’ note: We would also like to thank the following organizations for their support of the CEO Compact on Healthy and Sustainable Diets: Achmea Investment Management; Access to Nutrition Initiative, or ATNI; Consumers International; Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, or GAIN; Global Child Forum; Food Tank; Future Food Movement; Legal and General Investment Management; Paris Peace Forum; SDG2 Advocacy Hub; Stronger Foundations for Nutrition; the Food Foundation; The Power of Nutrition; the Rockefeller Foundation; Trinity Health; World Benchmarking Alliance; Lawrence Haddad — executive director of GAIN and World Food Prize laureate; Sam Kass — food entrepreneur, American political adviser and former White House chef; Germana Leyna — managing director, Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre; Derek Yach — Global Health Strategies LLC and former PepsiCo executive.