Health and Nutrition
Mars Chocolate
Today, Mars produces seven of the world's 20 best-selling chocolate brands, including MARS®, DOVE®/GALAXY® and SNICKERS®. So, it's no surprise that we are best known for our chocolate.
At Mars, our products provide opportunities for people across the world to practice pleasure in balance every day. Mars chocolate products should be enjoyed in moderation as part of a healthy and well-balanced lifestyle – and bring people small moments of joy in the process. We provide information to educate consumers about including our products in a healthy, balanced lifestyle.
We are aware of the high levels of obesity, heart disease and diabetes in some regions where we operate, and we are taking steps to enhance the nutritional content of our snacks. We are renovating our chocolate products to reduce saturated fats and decrease calories per serving and innovating to give consumers greater choice.
Information
Around the world, we are informing stakeholders about the nutritional content of our products. We encourage people to lead healthy, active lifestyles through local communications campaigns and partnerships with government, including:
- Epode European Network which helps European countries to implement the EPODE program (an obesity prevention program) that has been successful in France. Started in 1992 in two small towns, Fleurbaix and Laventie, this program is now in 260 towns in France as well as in Belgium, Spain, Greece, The Netherlands, and Romania, among others. There are four private partners, Nestlé, Ferrero, Orangina and Mars, and five Universities (in the UK, Belgium, The Netherlands, France and Spain) involved in the different areas: scientific evaluation, social marketing, involvement of political representatives and public-private partnership.
- Raise the Bar campaigns in Australia, the U.K. and U.S., which launched in 2008 along with sister campaigns in Germany, the Netherlands and Greece.
- The Alliance for a Healthier Generation Competitive Food Guidelines, a joint project between the American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation. We provide products that meet the Guideline's nutritional criteria for middle and high schools.
- Change4Life, Britain's biggest anti-obesity marketing campaign, sponsored by the government with input from food, soft drink, fitness and broadcasting companies.
- The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, a program that seeks to lower levels of obesity in the United States by 2015, particularly in children. We are a founding member and play a leading role in this initiative. We joined First Lady Michelle Obama and the Partnership for a Healthier America to announce a pledge to reduce annual calories across member companies from 2008 levels by 1.5 trillion by the end of 2015 (starting with one trillion fewer calories by 2012), and to sustain that level.
We have provided consumers with clear nutritional information about our snacks, using Guideline Daily Amount (GDA) labeling since 2008 and do not advertise our products to children under 12. Read more.
Renovation
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RENOVATION means enhancing nutritional content of existing brands. We have already renovated all our chocolate products globally, removing 97 percent of trans fats between 2002 and 2010, and based on extensive testing of the recipes internally and with consumers – they still taste great
In 2010, we passed a major milestone by removing at least 15 percent of saturated fats from MARS®, SNICKER®, MILKY WAY® and TOPIC® bars in the U.K. and major European markets. These products now have 35- to 45-percent less saturated fat per 100 grams than the average of the top 25 chocolate brands in each market.
We are also renovating products to reduce calories per serving. We have committed not to ship any chocolate products that exceed 250 calories per portion by the end of 2013. In many markets, we have replaced SNICKERS® King Size — one large chocolate bar — with two smaller bars. The new product is called the SNICKERS® Duo, in the U.K, for example. In the U.S., our "2toGo" bars are packed in memory wrappers that can be twisted to close, giving people the choice to save one portion for later.
Innovation
In addition to looking at how to enhance the nutritional profile of our product portfolio, we're introducing new products to give consumers greater choice. Mars Symbioscience is conducting innovative research into the health benefits of the natural flavanols found in cocoa.
In the U.S. Mars Chocolate is test-marketing a brand new line of snacks called goodnessKnows™. These bars offer two-to-three grams of fiber, three grams of protein and 200 milligrams of flavanols in each serving, while containing 150 calories and 20 to 35 milligrams of sodium.
