Wattie’s is committed to creating a sustainable food supply environment in New Zealand, we continue to evolve our portfolio of products supporting New Zealanders to transition from animal based protein to increased plant based protein food choices.
Formulation and Innovation
We take very seriously our role as a leading food manufacturer with a commitment to introducing healthier food choices and improving the nutrition of our current products where necessary.
Over the last 5 years we have worked hard to continue to offer more choices in our plant based categories with extensions to our Wattie’s SteamFresh frozen vegetables, Wattie’s legumes, and Wattie’s baby food range.
Wattie’s have various programmes to improve the nutritional profile of our existing products, including a sodium reduction programme which has been in place since 2005. In more recent years major product development has been undertaken to reduce the sugar in a number of our iconic Wattie’s products resulting in the launch of Wattie’s Tomato Sauce with 50% less sugar (35% less salt), Wattie’s Baked Beanz with 50% less added sugar (30% less salt) and Wattie’s Spaghetti with 50% less added sugar (30% less salt).
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We have a fully developed Global Nutrition Policy. In 2017 we’ve set ourselves a global commitment we will achieve 70% compliance by 2023 to meeting our Nutrition Guidelines (calories, saturated fat, salt and sugar). Our full Kraft Heinz* Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report can be found here. Internal targets for sodium and sugar are based on the Heart Foundation industry guidelines as applicable.
Currently more than 90 percent of our Wattie’s soups and frozen meals meet our sugar reduction guidelines.
All our Wattie’s pasta sauces, more than 80% of Wattie’s soups and over 75% of our Wattie’s frozen meals meet our sodium guidelines.
Community and Education Initiatives
As part of our Plunket partnership, Plunket provides Wattie’s baby feeding guides to all new parents, providing support and practical advice to parents starting their babies on a healthy eating journey. Wattie’s makes a financial contribution to Plunket for every pack of baby food sold. Additionally, our Wattie’s for Baby Careline team of Nutritionists provide support to parents around starting solids through to nutrition advice for toddlers.
We partner with the Nutrition Foundation, supporting their nutrition related programmes including JUST COOK, supporting New Zealand families to incorporate more plant based foods in their diet.
Since 1994 Wattie’s have had a partnership with The Salvation Army. As part of this partnership we run our Wattie’s Cans For Good national can 'collection, creation, education and donation' event for New Zealand schools. Our Cans for Good Collection programme donates up to 90K can annually. Over the time of the partnership over 1.5 million cans to The Salvation Army Foodbanks.
We recognise the role we can play in supporting New Zealand families to learn cooking skills. Our Food in a Minute recipe collection includes Healthy Pick options, which meet our guidelines for saturated fat, sodium, sugar, vegetable and fruit portions.
Food & Beverage Marketing
We are committed to responsible marketing and advertising. Our marketing and agencies attend regular Advertising Standards Authority training to ensure they are aware of our obligations under the advertising codes. All advertising and labels are subject to a rigorous internal review and a sign off process.
We recognise the importance and the superiority of breast milk in feeding infants and young children. We are a member of the Infant Nutrition Council and adhere to the INC Code of Practice for the Marketing of Infant Formula in New Zealand.
Health Star Rating
Wattie's support and implement the Australia and New Zealand government-led Health Star Rating programme.
We display Health Star Ratings on a number of products including our soups, baked beans, legumes, spaghetti, canned fruit and vegetable, frozen meals, frozen vegetables and cooking sauces.
As we update our labels to include the HSR, you can find the HSR of all our products on each individual product page, in addition to our nutritional information.
*Wattie's is part of global group Kraft Heinz
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