Milling & Baking News - May 4, 2021 - 45

General Mills achieves sustainably
sourcing goal on top ingredients
MINNEAPOLIS - General Mills, Inc.
achieved sustainable sourcing on 100%
of its top 10 priority ingredients and
advanced regenerative agriculture practices on farmland in 2020, just two of
several highlights noted by the Minneapolis-based company as part of the release of
its 2021 Global Responsibility Report.
The annual update, which highlights
social and environmental progress made
each fiscal year, features actions and outcomes across four areas: food, planet, people and community.
" Everything we do at General Mills connects back to our purpose of making food
the world loves, " said Jeffrey L. Harmening,
chairman and chief executive officer of
General Mills. " The events of this past year
- COVID-19 and the racial injustice and
social equity movements - reaffirmed our
belief that our scale brings opportunity
and responsibility. We can and are doing
good things that impact our people, our
planet and the communities we serve. "
Among General Mills top achievements in
2020 was the company's ability to reach its
goal of sustainably sourcing 100% of its top 10
priority ingredients (cocoa, corn, dairy, fiber
packaging, oats, sugar beets, sugarcane,
palm oil, vanilla and wheat). As recently as
fiscal 2018, only 32% of General Mills' vanilla
and 74% of its wheat was sustainably sourced.
According to General Mills, its priority

ingredients account for 40% of the company's annual raw material purchases.
" We have made substantial progress
on our priority ingredients over the last
seven years, and the knowledge we have
gained has helped inform our strategy
moving forward, " the company noted in
its report. " We've learned we need to take
a more holistic approach to regenerating
ecosystems and advancing human rights in
order to more fully actualize opportunities
that catalyze change. "
General Mills also said 70,000 acres are
enrolled in its regenerative agriculture
pilots, with a commitment to advance regenerative agriculture on one million acres by
2030, which the company said represents
approximately 20% of its sourcing footprint
in North America. General Mills' regenerative agriculture efforts will focus on its most
greenhouse gas emissions-intensive ingredient categories (wheat, oats, dry corn/sweeteners, fats and oils, dairy, sugar, chocolate/
cocoa, meat, nuts and miscellaneous grains
like barley, cassava, rice).
The company has identified six core principles linked to regenerative agriculture:
Understand context of farm operations,
minimize disturbance, maximize diversity,
keep the soil covered, maintain living root
year-round and integrate livestock.
General Mills also took steps over
the past year to innovate within its food

GENERAL MILLS

AAK details sustainability progress
in palm oil, empowering women
MALMÖ, SWEDEN- AAK highlighted a
new sustainable palm oil plan and the progress it made in a shea-sourcing program
involving women in West Africa when the
Malmö-based company on April 14 released
its sustainability report for 2020.
AAK adopted a sourcing plan, which
includes satellite monitoring, that aims
for a palm oil supply chain that is 100%
traceable to plantation and 100% verified
deforestation-free by 2025. The company
bakingbusiness.com

increased traceability to plantation to 70%
in 2020, which marked an increase of 27%
when compared to 2019. The company's
palm oil supply chain that is deforestation-free increased by 92% in 2020 when
compared to 2019 and now makes up 50% of
AAK's total palm oil supply chain.
The number of women involved in
Kolo Nafaso, AAK's direct shea-sourcing
program in West Africa, increased by 39%
in 2020 when compared to 2019 and now

portfolio, offering more nutrition-forward options and better delivering on
affordability and accessibility.
The company said it is now the largest
provider of natural and organic packaged
food in the United States, and 43% of its
global volume met the company's nutrition-forward foods criteria. Nutrition-forward foods must contain at least 8 grams of
whole grain, a half serving of low-fat or nonfat dairy per regional definition, or a half
serving of fruits, vegetables or nuts/seeds,
or they must meet the US Food and Drug

General Mills advanced regenerative
agriculture practices on farmland in 2020.

Administration's Healthy criteria: 21 Code
of Federal Regulations 101.65. General Mills
said 22% of its global volume met the first
criteria and 21% met the second criteria.
In 2020, 88% of the company's US packaging and 72% of its Europe and Australia packaging were recyclable. MBN

involves more than 320,000 women. AAK
teamed up with Saha Global, a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Ghana,
to help women entrepreneurs create new
businesses that provide access to clean
drinking water for their communities.
AAK in 2020 also reduced its environmental impact in several ways. The
company decreased energy consumption
by 5.4%. AAK's production sites generated
75,704 tonnes of waste in 2020, which
marked a 49% decrease when compared
with 2019. Water consumption per unit
of processed material fell by 63% in 2020
when compared with 2019. MBN
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Milling & Baking News - May 4, 2021

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