Nomad Foods showcases industry-leading fish sourcing and nutrition milestones in 6th annual Impact Report: Appetite for a Better World

• 98.9% of fish and seafood sourced to third party certified sustainable fishing or responsible farming standards
• 93.3% of 2022 net sales from Healthier Meal Choice products¹
• Nomad Foods included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Europe Index, scoring 100% in Health and Nutrition for the fourth consecutive year²

 FELTHAM, England – May 10^th, 2023 – Nomad Foods, Europe’s leading frozen food company, has today released its sixth annual sustainability report, providing an update on current commitments, targets and progress. The report covers the period January to December 2022.

The company’s sustainability strategy, ‘Appetite for a Better World’, is built around three pillars: Better Sourcing, Better Nutrition and Better Operations, supported by timebound targets that are aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

As outlined in the report, the company is making good progress against its core commitments. For example, Nomad Foods is the largest branded producer of Marine Stewardship Council certified and labelled fish and seafood globally and now sources 98.9% of its fish and seafood using sustainable fishing or responsible farming, putting it on track to achieve its goal of 100% by 2025. Additionally, the company is included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Europe Index (DJSI Europe) as the second highest ranking company in Europe within the food product industry group, receiving a maximum score of 100 in Health and Nutrition for the fourth consecutive year.

Stéfan Descheemaeker, Nomad Foods’ Chief Executive Officer, said, “Frozen food has many strong sustainability attributes including reduced food waste and locking in nutrients. As the clear leader of the frozen category in Europe, I am incredibly proud of the progress that our teams have made, working in collaboration with suppliers and other key stakeholders. Guided by our Purpose, Serving the World with Better Food, we have taken great care to do everything we can to continue to provide consumers with great tasting, sustainably sourced and affordable products from brands that they can trust. We have also started to integrate our latest acquisitions into our sustainability reporting and recently completed our new carbon footprint which includes Findus Switzerland and our Adriatics markets. This means we can now establish clear reduction pathways for these parts of the business.”

2022 Impact Report Highlights

Better Sourcing
Since co-founding the MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) over 25 years ago, Nomad Foods has led the way in protecting fish stocks for future generations. 98.9% of its fish and seafood is now sourced using sustainable fishing or responsible farming, putting the company on track to achieve its goal of 100% by 2025.

This goal has already been achieved in some markets. Farmed fish and seafood products are now 100% ASC (Aquaculture Stewardship Council)-certified in 10 markets, whilst wild capture products are 100% MSC-certified in eight markets. Nomad Foods remains the largest adopter of MSC-certified and labelled fish and seafood globally, with 96.5% of its wild capture fish and seafood certified and labelled.

Nomad Foods’ goal is to provide nutritious and affordable food while protecting natural resources, ecosystems, biodiversity, soil quality, and the communities and workers connected to the agricultural system. The business is on track to reach its target to source 100% of its vegetables, potatoes, fruit, and fresh herbs through sustainable farming practices by the end of 2025. In 2022, 90.8% of its suppliers achieved a score of silver or above on the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform (SAI Platform) Farm Sustainability Assessment (FSA), an increase of 2.8 percentage points from 2021.

 Better Nutrition
In 2022 Nomad Foods continued to increase sales from products considered as healthier meal choices (HMC), with 93.3% of net sales coming from HMC products. This translates to an increase of over €126 million, and a 1.8% increase on 2021.

Product launches, renovations and rollouts to new markets are crucial opportunities to drive nutritional improvement. 2022 was the best year ever for HMC innovations.

One standout example of nutritional improvement is Goodfellas Pizza. In 2022, over 85% of the Goodfellas pizza range were HMC, and 68.7% of net sales were HMC, an increase of 49.4% from 2021.

The performance in 2022 adds to a strong legacy of nutritional improvement, reflected in the fact that Nomad Foods received a 100% Health and Nutrition score on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for the fourth consecutive year (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022).

Better Operations
In 2021, Nomad Foods announced plans to significantly reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions in line with targets approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

In 2022, the company reduced the absolute emissions of its legacy business, prior to acquisitions, by 23.4% and its emissions intensity by 23.9% from a 2019 baseline. This is slightly ahead of the company’s SBTi target trajectory for absolute emissions. Nomad Foods also reduced absolute emissions by 10.8% and emissions intensity by 2.4% since 2021.

2022 was also the first year that all Nomad Foods legacy sites ran on 100% renewable electricity for the whole year. As part of the company’s roadmap to net zero, it has set a target that by 2025, the top 75% of suppliers by absolute emissions volume will develop their own science-based targets.

Nomad Foods also increased the percentage of its packaging that is recyclable to 96.5% (an increase of 6% on 2021) and delivered a 33% reduction in edible food waste versus its 2015 baseline.

Download the 2022 Impact Report here

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Nomad Foods Media Contacts
Sam Fulton
Group Director of Corporate Affairs & Sustainability
sam.fulton@nomadfoods.com
+44 7936 924691

Oliver Thomas
Corporate Affairs Manager
oliver.thomas@nomadfoods.com
+44 7568 108744

About Nomad Foods
Nomad Foods (NYSE: NOMD) is Europe's leading frozen foods company. The company's portfolio of iconic brands, which includes Birds Eye, Findus, iglo, Ledo and Frikom, have been a part of consumers' meals for generations, standing for great tasting food that is convenient, high quality and nutritious. Nomad Foods is headquartered in the United Kingdom. Additional information may be found at www.nomadfoods.com.

Notes to editors:

¹ Nomad Foods uses an externally verified Nutrient Profiling Tool (NPT) to assess the overall nutritional profile of products and determine whether they constitute a healthier meal choice – for further details see 2022 and 2021 sustainability reports

² Score as of December 9, 2022 – for further details see our press release here