Mars is a family-owned company with global sales of over USD 30 bn. It operates in more than 72 countries, and our product sectors include Chocolate, Drinks, Food, Petcare, Symbioscience, and Wrigley Gum & Confections: The company’s product range includes famous brand names such as MARS®, SNICKERS®, MILKY WAY®, M&M’S®, UNCLE BEN’S®, PEDIGREE® and WHISKAS®.

By introducing Mars as a unified corporate brand name, we have strengthened the credibility and goodwill which our established brands have earned worldwide and consolidated the company’s popularity. The name Mars reflects our rich history and the fact that our company was founded by the Mars family. So unifying our brands under the Mars corporate brand was an obvious choice.

The Five Principles are a philosophy of values which leads and guides our company.

Quality – Responsibility – Mutuality – Efficiency – Freedom

In one form or another, these Five Principles have guided our company since its beginnings over 90 years ago. They are more than a statement of values: they reflect the fundamental beliefs of the company and its employees and help Mars as a family business to shape and define itself with clear-cut values.

And while the Five Principles have been updated over the years, in essence they remain unchanged. The Five Principles are the real reason for our success and the formula for our future. They express our vision of not only who we are, but where – and what – we want to be. Simply put, they are our inspiration.

Put into practice daily by our people all over the world, the Five Principles have evolved into a unique way of doing business that collectively and individually sets Mars apart.

For more information please see our The 5 Principles section.

For Mars, doing business in harmony with humankind and nature is a great opportunity. We believe that only a company built on the principles of sustainability, with a willingness to embrace change and with a holistic view of the world, will be ready for the future.

We not only meet but often outperform the environmental regulations in all countries in which we operate. Our environmental policy is anchored in the Five Principles – Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom –, which guide every aspect of our business. Our employees, customers, suppliers and consumers expect us to develop, implement and constantly review socially responsible environmental policies.

For more information, please browse our Sustainability Brochure.

Quality is the most important of our Five Principles and our foremost goal in all our business activities and in everything we set out to achieve, from the products we make to the services we provide. At Mars, we are passionate about producing and marketing products of the highest quality, and guaranteeing consumers that our products will live up to their expectations.

Ultimately Quality is the result of unremitting attention to detail at every stage, from picking the right raw materials to the end product.

For more information please see our Committed to Quality section.

We at Mars are committed to being part of the solution in helping to address the problem of obesity. Likewise we have pledged to help people live healthy and balanced lifestyles. A one-sided approach cannot be the objective. Success can only be achieved through an approach that addresses all the variables and all the relevant players.

The challenge for a healthy lifestyle is striking a balance between “energy in” and “energy out”. Indeed our lifestyles have changed as the conveniences of modern life have lowered our daily calorie need.

As a responsible manufacturer of food products, Mars promotes an active lifestyle and transparent consumer information when it comes to food. So Mars introduced comprehensive nutritional labelling on its products so consumers can make an informed choice and be free to decide for themselves whether or not the product suits their individual lifestyle. Another focal point in drawing up responsible communication is to dispense with advertising which targets children under the age of twelve.

Mars also wants to be at the cutting edge when it comes to the further development of our products. That’s why several years ago we reduced the proportion of trans-fatty acids in our chocolate products to less than 0.5 percent. Likewise, in spring 2010, we significantly reduced the salt content of our Uncle Ben’s Express products, and since summer 2010 our popular chocolate bars Mars, Snickers and Milky Way have been available with fewer saturated fatty acids.

Mars actively promotes working with and supporting local communities. We are convinced that only shared success is real success. That’s why we actively engage with local communities wherever we are around the world.

This commitment corresponds to our core values and is fully supported by our people.

For more information on our involvement see Social Responsibility and News.

Mars, Incorporated takes its responsibility towards the cocoa farming families very seriously; indeed we have an explicit obligation to the communities that are touched by our business. Driven by this commitment, Mars has taken a leading role in the industry’s efforts to secure a sustainable future for small farmers and their families with our focus firmly trained on the ecosystem in which those farms play an important part. Our efforts are aimed at raising the overall income of farmers and promoting all aspects of sustainable cocoa cultivation.

To achieve these goals and combat child labour in particular, we have signed an unprecedented industry protocol. It sets out our commitments and links our efforts with those of other organisations such as the ILO (International Labour Organization). The protocol lists a series of steps to ensure that cocoa is grown responsibly, without the use of child labour.

Mars is also financing a programme to improve the educational opportunities of children from West Africa. These and other steps to address the cocoa growing conditions in West Africa are only the beginning of a long-term commitment Mars began back in 1998 to improve the well-being of millions of small farmers who cultivate cocoa.

To find out more about our 5 Principles and our Approach to Responsible Cocoa Farming click on the links below.

A white coating on our chocolate products is a tell-tale sign that the product has, at some point, come into contact with heat. The cocoa butter, a natural ingredient of chocolate, has settled on the surface due to the effects of the heat.

It’s quite understandable that you may not want to eat the product in this condition as it doesn’t look so appetising. But apart from a slight loss of taste, the chocolate can be eaten without any problems.

All our products which contain nuts specify “nuts” in the declaration of ingredients. The list of ingredients also indicates whether traces of nuts may have been introduced during the production process. For example Mars Bar wrappers now feature the wording “may contain traces of nuts”. If you have any concerns about which of our products contains nuts or traces of nuts, please Contact us directly.

Here you are, looking forward to a pure taste experience – and then this: your chocolate bar just doesn’t taste the way it should. We do our best to guarantee a consistent, excellent quality. That is why we only use high quality raw materials and packaging materials. What’s more, constant checks ensure that only products in perfect condition leave our warehouses. However, changes to the flavour cannot be excluded if and when the chocolates are stored next to products emitting strong odours. Please Contact us if you have any concerns.

You look forward to a piece of tasty chocolate and, to your disappointment, realise that the “best before” date printed on the packaging has expired. We take every precaution to prevent this from happening. All our products are fresh and in first class condition when they leave our production facilities. Our field staff check our products in the stores on a regular basis. Unfortunately, we cannot exclude that an out-of-date product has reached the consumer. Should this be the case, please Contact us.

Emulsifiers/stabilisers belong to a group of additives known as lipoid substances. They make it possible to mix two otherwise immiscible substances, for example water and fat. The emulsifier lecithin we use is of vegetable origin, as are the ingredients mono- and diglyceride. Lecithin is used throughout the chocolate industry to emulsify even the smallest amounts of water. Further information on the use of emulsifiers can be found in Dr. Oetker’s encyclopaedia Lebensmittel und Ernährung (Food and Nutrition), among others. ISBN-Nr. 3-7670-0399-6

Our chocolate products do contain milk and egg products as a matter of principle.

Please note that whey is a dairy product, usually produced with the help of animal rennet (calf). This also applies to cheese making, which in Europe has traditionally been produced for centuries with the use of rennet. The milk by-product known as whey is a valuable component of our recipes.

We would also like to point out that our M&M’s products contain an animal-based natural colouring agent (E 120 = red colouring agent from carminic acid, also known as cochineal).

We do not use any alcohol in the manufacture of our products.

Pet owners who decide to feed their four-legged friends with ready-made pet food expect a product of the highest quality formulated precisely to meet their pet’s requirements. As the market leader in the production of ready-made pet food we share a particular responsibility. Our company, certified according to DIN ISO 9001, fully embraces this responsibility and has a comprehensive quality assurance system within its operations.

This also involves implementing relevant scientific findings from our research institute, the Waltham Centre for Pet Care and Nutrition, in the production of our pet food at the highest level of quality. We are able to combine 40 years of experience with state-of-the-art technology.

For the production of our pet food products we use exclusively raw meat materials derived from slaughtered animals whose meat has officially been released as fit for human consumption by state meat inspectors. The raw materials are delivered either refrigerated or deep-frozen, and we ensure that they are frozen immediately after the slaughtering process so that the cold chain is not interrupted before arrival at our company.

We also request special quality and consistency certificates from our suppliers for all other ingredients such as cereals and vegetables. Genetically modified foodstuffs are taboo. We use maize exclusively from European countries in which the cultivation of genetically modified maize is not permitted. All delivered raw materials are checked according to a detailed sampling plan based on criteria that would indicate any and all risk. Incoming materials are checked for example for harmful substances, i.e. possible contamination with heavy metals or pesticides. Other quality properties such as protein, pH value, mineral and fibre content are also documented. Raw materials that do not comply with our stringent high standards are rejected out of hand.

In the manufacturing we process materials according to recipes scientifically developed and researched at the Waltham Centre. We use equally high quality and strictly controlled raw materials for both our wet and dry pet food products. The only difference is in the production process. The cans, trays and pouches are exposed to a sterilisation process during which they are heated to exact calculations. By contrast, for our dry products, we apply extrusion technology. This means that moisture is extracted from the ingredients and the product is then shaped under high pressure using a moulding plate. This process creates high temperatures in a way similar to the sterilisation process. These specific heating methods sufficiently guarantee the shelf life and sterility of our products.

The use of animal raw materials is clearly defined by Regulation (EC) No. 1774/2002.

The materials of animal origin used by pet food manufacturers are exclusively derived from the same animals slaughtered for human consumption. This means the materials stem from healthy animals officially determined as fit for human consumption, without restriction.

Animal by-products of the slaughtering process are used for the manufacture of pet food, i.e. lungs, kidneys, livers, etc., which are not required in the human diet or the consumption of which is no longer common today.

Many pet owners ask themselves which product is best for their pet and what the differences are - apart from the price. The explanation is simple. All pet food products from Mars, regardless of brand, are guaranteed to contain all the nutrients a pet needs to stay healthy. The differences are, however, in the ingredients as they determine the digestibility of the food, its taste, and ultimately the price.

Specifically this means that more expensive products are highly digestible, i.e. the body is able to absorb more of the food. Cheaper food with a lower digestibility is excreted undigested in higher amounts. While this aspect is not detrimental to health, it is not desired by some pet owners. Also, part of the protein in less expensive products is covered by ingredients such as cereals as opposed to a premium product where more meat is used. This is similar to human food: during the week we might have meatballs made from a minced beef-egg-meal mix, but on special occasions, we serve tender meatballs made from premium minced beef. These differences are certainly noticeable in the taste of the different products.

We do not source any genetically modified raw materials or additives.

Our materials are exclusively derived from conventional crops.

Naturally we comply with all the statutory requirements, including EU Directives (EC) No. 1829/2003 and No. 1830/2003, effective since April 2004.

Due to the unique Uncle Ben’s parboiled process, the natural vitamins and minerals of the brown rice migrate to the inside of each rice kernel, where they are then largely preserved during the subsequent processing stages. This procedure is also the reason why Uncle Ben’s rice is so fluffy and doesn’t stick.

In the early 1900s an African American rice farmer from Texas harvested his rice with such care that he soon acquired an excellent reputation for the outstanding quality of his rice. With time he became legendary in and around Houston for producing the best quality rice year after year.

In fact his rice was of such excellent quality that the rice of all the other farmers was measured against his. When a rice farmer was especially proud of own rice, he would say: “It’s as good as Uncle Ben’s!”. That is how the name Uncle Ben’s became synonymous with rice of excellent quality, something that remains unchanged to this day.

Only the people living in and around Texas knew the real “Uncle Ben” and his rice, or so the story goes. But today the name Uncle Ben’s is famous all over the world.

Seramis, the porous clay granules, stores water and nutrients, which are then released and absorbed by the plants as needed. The Seramis liquid fertiliser supplies plants with everything they need for a luscious green or beautiful blossoms. The Seramis water indicator monitors the plant’s moisture levels. When the indicator shows red, the plant needs water. Blue means that the clay granules still have enough stored water. Here are the most important advantages at a glance:

• 3 times less frequent watering
• Repotting at any time of the year
• Suits any container or plant