Process and Method for Implementation of Automated Nutrient Profiling Reporting for a Global Food and Beverage Portfolio

Abstract

Abstract Objectives With the increasing need for dynamic and flexible nutrient profiling of foods and beverages, PepsiCo has expanded capabilities to report on global nutrition data for business guidance and reporting to regulatory and health agencies. Additional processes were established to integrate nutrition and finance information and influence the long-term data strategy needs of the organization. Methods A multidisciplinary team of nutrition science, finance and IT professionals was assembled to systematically collect and link nutritional and financial data. A controlled, centralized database was created with data from 2015 to present from multiple data sources. Data quality is reviewed quarterly. Dashboards, scorecards and other reporting outputs were created (Tableau software, 2019.02) with end-user input, to measure performance against country-specific regulations, Front-of-Pack (FOP) labeling requirements and internal nutritional guidelines. Results Nutrition data from > 40,000 products are captured annually and linked with sales volume data. There was a 2.5-fold increase in countries contributing data since 2015 (10 vs 26 markets), representing >80% of the company's annual food/beverage sales volumes. Current reports focus on analyzing nutrients-to-encourage (protein, fiber, specific vitamins and/or minerals), food-groups-to-encourage (fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fat-free/low-fat dairy and nuts/seeds/legume) and nutrients-to-limit (saturated fat, sodium, added sugars, trans-fat). Dashboards are currently utilized by 9 company functions, supporting several requests, including national nutrition regulations (n = 2 dashboards), FOP labeling systems (n = 2), retail store requirements (n = 1), internal sustainability goals (n = 3) and customized reports (n = 40). Across all iterations, dashboards have received >1000 views. Conclusions Automated nutrient profiling has been successfully implemented by a multidisciplinary team. Dashboards provide end-users with a timely and efficient tool to dynamically analyze PepsiCo's product portfolio guiding short- and long-term business decisions. Future work includes informing opportunities to improve the nutrient profile of PepsiCo's portfolio and increasing data availability and analysis. Funding Sources PepsiCo Inc.