Suppliers

The Standard is an integral part of all of our purchase orders and supply contracts. Through our Sustainable Sourcing Tier 1 program, we verify compliance with the Standard by our direct suppliers either sharing a combination of existing relevant certifications such as ISO 14001, SA8000, FSSC 24000 or ISO 45001 or through them undergoing independent ethical audits carried out by audit firms accredited by Nestlé. These audits follow the SMETA Best Practice Guidance (pdf, 2Mb). If non-compliance issues or gaps are found, a time-bound action plan is developed and implemented by the supplier. The implementation of this plan will be later verified by the auditor. In case a supplier refuses to undergo an audit or to close gaps, we may terminate the business relationship. 

In addition to verifying compliance with our direct suppliers, we have identified 14 raw materials that present higher risk of environmental and/or social issues. For those, we work closely with our direct suppliers and partners to conduct a mapping of our upstream supply chains and carry out farm assessments in our upstream supply chain with partner organizations. In many cases, issues are identified that require long-term, tailored interventions to tackle their root causes for greater impact.

Note: As of 1 July 2018, the Nestlé Responsible Sourcing Standard replaces previous versions of the Nestlé Supplier Code, as well as the Nestlé Responsible Sourcing Guideline and the Nestlé Commitment for the Responsible Use of Agricultural Raw Materials. Any references to these documents should be considered as references to the Standard.

• Nestlé Corporate Business Principles (pdf, 4Mb)
• Nestlé Responsible Sourcing Standard (pdf, 2Mb)

Other language versions of the Nestlé Responsible Sourcing Standard are available in Documents and reports.

• Food Fraud Prevention (pdf, 1Mb)
• Microbiological Specifications (pdf, 1Mb)
• Guidance to minimize microbiological risk - Washing produce 2017 (pdf, 2Mb)
• Guidance to minimize microbiological risk - Drying produce 2018 (pdf, 6Mb)
• Guidance to minimize microbiological risk - Steaming of dried produce 2018 (pdf, 3Mb)
• Guide of Chlorate thresholds and limits (xls, 300Kb)

• Minimizing the risk of microbial contamination in primary production of berries - 2016 (pdf, 15Mb)
• Minimizing microbial contamination in primary production of fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices – short version 2018 (pdf, 5Mb)
• Minimizing microbial contamination in primary production of fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices – long version 2018 - part 1 (pdf, 8Mb)
• Minimizing microbial contamination in primary production of fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices – long version 2018 - part 2 (pdf, 12Mb)

• Washing checklist (xls, 150Kb)
• Drying checklist (xls, 150Kb)
• Steaming checklist (xls, 150Kb)