Food & Nutrition

Protecting our planet

We believe healthy food shouldn’t come at the expense of the planet and must be sustainably produced for future generations.

We are making progress towards reaching net zero by 2050 and reducing unsustainable water use by 50% by 2025. In addition, we are continuing to work towards 100% of our packaging being reusable, recyclable or compostable. We have achieved 89% of our Food & Nutrition primary portfolio meeting that goal.

Sustainable rice

Rice plays an important role in the world’s diet and economic prosperity. It is a daily staple for 3.5 billion people around the world and provides income to around 19% of the world’s population. However, traditional rice production uses approximately 40% of the world’s irrigation water and accounts for up to 10% of global methane emissions.

We are continuing to drive our Mars sustainability agenda to make rice farming more sustainable and to take action to make our packaging better for the planet.

As owners of one of the world’s biggest and best-loved rice brands – Ben’s Original™ – rice is a critical raw material for Food & Nutrition. Our focus is on making rice farming more sustainable by reducing the amount of irrigation water, minimizing GHG emissions and increasing yields, as well as bringing about meaningful improvements to the lives of people in our value chain, enabling them to thrive.

One of the most powerful ways that we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions in our supply chain is by working with our farmer partners on more efficient rice farming practices. Our ambition is to lead multi-stakeholder collaboration to innovate and evolve the way rice is grown, harvested and sourced to make the world’s most important grain more sustainable for both people and planet. Although we are not there yet, we are making great strides towards this ambition by collaborating with the best suppliers and partners, employing the top experts in rice and adopting cutting-edge technologies and best-in-class growing practices to grow rice the right way.

Climate-smart agriculture practices

Through our programs in Asia, Europe and the U.S., we are promoting climate-smart practices that help reduce GHG emissions and improve water management, while improving yields and income for the rice growers. This includes alternate wetting and drying (AWD), a climate-smart agriculture practice for rice that aims to reduce water use and emissions. The practice reduces the amount of water used by up to 30% and reduces the amount of GHGs produced by over 40%. We have been an active member of the Sustainable Rice Platform(Opens a new window) (SRP) since it was founded. The SRP is a global alliance to promote sustainable rice farming, empower farmers and reduce the environmental footprint of rice. Mars was amongst the first in the industry to commit to the SRP's Sustainable Rice Cultivation Standard, the world’s first voluntary sustainability standard for rice. Through partnerships with our suppliers, development organizations and farmers in Asia and Europe we are working to ensure most of our rice is SRP certified and third party verified.

Sustainable packaging

There’s no such thing as sustainable produce in unsustainable packaging. Today, almost 90% of our Food & Nutrition packaging globally is reusable, recyclable or compostable. We’re also focusing on improving recycling infrastructure and educating consumers on the right way to dispose of products after they have used them. In the U.K., Mars is a founding member of the Flexible Plastics Fund and we are committed to driving consumer awareness on product recyclability. By the end of 2023, we aim to have on-pack recycling labels (OPRL(Opens a new window)) on all our Ben’s Original™ and DOLMIO® products,

In Australia, we’re redesigning our rigid plastic squeeze-on portfolio to reduce plastic. We have also made our plastic sauce bottles lighter and are working to add more recycled content – this will have saved us 230 tonnes of virgin plastic by the end of 2023. Mars Australia are also proud members of the industry-led National Plastic Recycling Scheme(Opens a new window), and we are supporting its curbside collection pilot for soft plastics. The three-year industry-led trial scheme will develop a circular economy for soft-plastics in Australia – allowing packs to be collected curbside, processed and recycled into new food-grade packaging.