PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE: PEP), one of the world's largest food and beverage companies, today announced that it will expand its existing efforts to help reduce obesity in the United States by joining the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation (HWCF).
A first-of-its-kind endeavor, the HWCF involves the collaboration of more than 40 members of the food and beverage industry, retailers and diverse non-governmental organizations, with PepsiCo serving in a leadership role. The group aims to provide and promote solutions that will help people achieve a healthy weight by balancing the calories they consume with the calories they burn. The HWCF's efforts will help provide people with the tools to achieve energy balance. These efforts will focus on three key areas: the marketplace, the workplace and schools.
"As an industry, we touch the lives of tens of millions of people every day. We are driven by the belief that by joining forces with partners across many sectors, we can make a far greater impact in the fight to reduce obesity than by working alone," said Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo chairman and chief executive officer and HWCF vice chair.
"For our part, we are committing to enhancing our efforts to offer food and beverage choices that can contribute to healthy weight. To do that, we'll offer more reduced-calorie and portion-controlled options," said Nooyi. "At the same time we will do more to educate people, particularly children, about balancing the calories they consume with those that they burn."
HWCF partners will deliver options in the Marketplace that help consumers manage their calorie intake through changes to products, packaging, labeling and marketing. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will fund an independent, objective, scientifically based evaluation of the marketplace initiative.
In Schools, the Healthy Schools Partnership will teach lifelong healthy habits, and in the Workplace, the HWCF partners will provide enhanced programs for employees to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. The schools initiative will be evaluated by the University of California at Berkeley Center for Weight and Health and the University of Kansas. Workplace programs will be overseen by the National Business Group on Health.
PepsiCo has already demonstrated success in the three focus areas: