Our approach to responsibly sourced raw materials

At the heart of good food is the quality of the ingredients, the soils and ecosystems in which they are grown, and the conditions of the people who produce them.

For Nestlé, responsible sourcing means improving the traceability of our ingredients, monitoring how they are produced. This involves applying our environmental and human rights requirements - detailed in our Responsible Sourcing Core Requirements (pdf, 2Mb) - at the different stages of our supply chain. Examples of these requirements include that land and resources of Indigenous Peoples and local communities are respected, and that no deforestation and no conversion of forests and other ecosystems occurs in our supply chain. We implement risk-based due diligence mechanisms, including supplier self-assessments, independent third-party audits and ongoing training for suppliers, to address identified risks.

Our progress

46.5 %

¹ Key ingredients: cereals and grains; cocoa; coconut; dairy (derivatives and fresh milk); fish and seafood; green coffee; hazelnuts; meat, poultry and eggs; palm oil; pulp and paper; soy; spices; sugar; and vegetables.

*This performance number differs from the one available in our Non-Financial Statement 2025 due to a change in the methodology during the first half of 2026. Now we consider ingredients volumes converted back to their original fresh state, instead of their processed form.

Learn more in the Environmental Disclosures section of our 2025 Non-Financial Statement (pdf, 16Mb).

Our approach to responsible sourcing

Our approach to responsible sourcing aims to help build the foundations to advance regenerative food systems at scale.

Key ingredients are assessed as responsibly sourced for target purposes when they have been either (i) mapped to sub-national production origins in a low-risk country for human rights and environmental risks, or (ii) mapped to the point of origin and assessed as compliant with our Responsible Sourcing Core Requirements through one of the following means:

Selected sustainability-related certifications (e.g. Rainforest Alliances, Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil).
Second or third-party farm selected sustainability assessments (e.g. Farm Sustainability Assessment), suppliers’ programs and other industry schemes.
On-the-ground programs in which Nestlé directly works with producers (e.g., Nestlé Cocoa Plan, Nescafé Plan or Nespresso Sustainable Quality Plan).
Integrated approach at landscape level to address human rights and environmental risks in specific ingredients and origins.

From 2025, we are assessing our Tier 1 suppliers’ Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence (HREDD) — taking into account their systems, processes and progress in improving these areas.

Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence (HREDD) is a structured approach to risk management, which helps businesses to identify, prevent, mitigate and remediate potential or actual human rights and environmental risks and impacts in their operations and supply chains. It is based on the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. HREDD is increasingly required by regulations.

Key terms explained

Advancing regenerative food systems at scale

Nestlé’s intention to advance regenerative food systems at scale means:

Advancing: by raising Nestlé’s voice and using its influence to drive progress, in collaboration with others.
Regenerative food systems: that go beyond reducing harm to actively restoring ecological systems, while at the same time strengthening the social, economic and human rights foundations that food production depends on — so that food systems can sustain nature, people and livelihoods over the long term.
At scale: because the planet, communities and individuals need global, systems-level change.

Read more about regenerative food systems.

The four key pillars to our approach

Environment

Our Responsible Sourcing Core Requirements includes requirements to identify and mitigate environmental effects and to minimize their impacts.

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Mother with little girlMother with little girl

Human rights

Our work on responsible sourcing is designed to support alignment with Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence (HREDD), which also encourage suppliers to cascade relevant requirements to the next tiers of the supply chain.

We have also developed dedicated action plans to address our salient human rights issues throughout our value chain. The action plans are central to putting our Human Rights Framework and Roadmap into practice.

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Animal welfare

In dairy, we work with farmers through training and capacity building in areas such as balanced nutrition, animal health and creating a low-stress environment for cows. We use advanced sensors and monitoring techniques to check the wellbeing of the cattle providing our milk. Introducing more multispecies pastures and grazing models allows cows to graze outdoors for longer periods of the year.

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Transparency

We are committed to transparency. Improving the traceability of the origins of our raw materials and understanding how they are produced is an important element of our responsible sourcing practices. Gaining visibility into our supply chain enhances our ability to monitor and improve suppliers’ environmental and social practices.

The level of traceability we have varies depending on the complexity of the supply chain. In our dairy and beef supply chains, almost three-quarters of our volumes have been traced to country of origin, and the majority of those are traceable to farm level. For the other ingredients under our Responsible Sourcing Program, we are working to reach further levels of traceability, and our progress will continue to depend on the sourcing context.

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