Smithfield Foods has pledged to step up clean label efforts by reducing  sodium and sugar by 10 percent by 2025. The strategic target is part of company-wide health and wellness goals as the US pork producer and food-processing company boosts its sustainability commitment.

“At Smithfield, we are constantly innovating to meet the ever-changing needs of consumers who are increasingly seeking out foods with improved nutrition profiles and clean, transparent labeling,” says Stewart Leeth, chief sustainability officer for Smithfield Foods. 

“We understand the importance of continually evolving our operational practices and sustainability program to support these ends. Our addition of health and wellness as a sustainability pillar underscores our ongoing commitment to lead the industry in providing transparency and nourishing, high-quality protein products.”

By 2025, the company will lower sodium and sugar levels 10 percent across all products in its family of brands. 

Clean label across product lines
Smithfield says it regularly assesses the ingredients in its products to accommodate varied consumer diets, preferences and lifestyles. Mindful of pivoting and adapting to consumer demand. 

While sodium and sugars are integral components of a well-rounded diet that preserve food and enhance flavor, the company notes, shifts in consumer expectations have inspired a concerted effort to reduce the use of these ingredients. 

By 2025, the company will lower sodium and sugar levels 10 percent across all products in its family of brands. To reach this goal, Smithfield Foods will continue to innovate and adapt its formulas to preserve taste, safety and quality while reducing sodium and sugar content.

This commitment complements existing products in the companys U.S. portfolio that provide enhanced nutritional benefits and simplified ingredients with no artificial ingredients, no nitrates or added nitrites and no preservatives or monosodium glutamate (MSG), among other benefits.

Increasing transparency
In line with Innova Market Insights #1 trend for 2021, Transparency Triumphs, the company is responding to increasing consumer demand for transparency. 

Consumers want to know more about what is in the foods they purchase, and they want simplified labels with ingredients that they can understand and pronounce to make informed health-minded choices.

Smithfield stresses that it’s committed to increasing label transparency and to continuing to reduce the complexity of product labels by shortening ingredient statements wher appropriate and employing cleaner labeling across its products over the next four years. 

This goal builds upon existing transparency efforts, including removing conventional ingredients unfamiliar to the average consumer in favor of natural ingredients produced from vinegar, celery juice and cherry powder. 

The companys online "Glossary of Ingredients," launched in 2016, is also the first online resource of its kind provided by a protein company and lists definitions for over 100 ingredients found in Smithfield products.

The new goals are part of Smithfields new standalone Health and Wellness pillar and expanded sustainability program.