The State of Children’s Rights & Business

Food, Beverage & Personal Care

Sector Focus

About this sector

Food, Beverage & Personal Care

Food, Beverage & Personal Care is a sector that includes companies which process raw ingredients or transform food or products into other forms for consumption. Companies in this sector sell and market products directly to customers, including children.

Impacting children’s health and well-being

Of all the business sectors benchmarked by Global Child Forum, the Food, Beverage and Personal Care sector arguably has the greatest impact on children’s health and well-being.

At every stage of the value chain, food and beverage companies have the potential to do great harm or tremendous good for children  – and therefore must consider children in their policies and practices. There is great potential for the food and beverage industry in particular, to respect and support children’s rights to health and adequate nutrition. This requires consideration of how products are designed, marketed, labelled, priced and distributed, and extends to related laws, policies or practices that have an impact on children as consumers.

The sector also continues to grapple with the impacts of child labour, especially within agricultural supply chains. Many products containing staple raw materials such as cocoa, sugar, palm oil, and coffee, are associated with children working in hazardous conditions today.

The sector includes the following industries:

  • Personal & Household Products
  • Food Retailers
  • Food Production
  • Agricultural Products

Read on to discover insights into the performance of this sector based on our unique benchmark series, The State of Children’s Rights and Business.

Want to know more? 

How did this sector perform?

Watch a summary of the Food, Beverage & Personal Care 2024 Benchmark Results

Sector Scorecard

Food, Beverage & Personal Care

Need a summary of this sector’s benchmark performance?

Download Sector Scorecard
Top 5

Best performing companies

Since 2013, Global Child Forum has been benchmarking the world’s most influential companies, assessing how they respond to children’s rights. Our data can be used by corporates to increase their social impact, and for investors to inform their decision-making.

 

The scores in this top list come from the Global Benchmark 2024, and are based on the total selection of 1,802 companies – find out more about which companies were benchmarked here.

 

Choose your industry to the right to see the top five scoring companies. You can also search for a specific company name in the field below.

Select sector:
Company Average score
Wilmar International
PLDT
Hershey
Musim Mas
PepsiCo
Siemens
Bouygues Group
Owens Corning
Iberdrola
Holcim
Norsk Hydro
Lundin Mining
Teck Resources
Newmont
Suzano
Puma
ANTA
Kering
Fung Group
Hyundai Motor
Neste
Idemitsu Kosan
OMV
BP
Formosa Petrochemical
Lodha
Sun Life Financial
UOB
KB Financial Group
Maybank
Wilmar International
Hershey
Musim Mas
PepsiCo
Aldi Nord
Merck
Bayer
Sun Pharma
Aspen Pharmacare
Lupin
PLDT
Telenor
Verizon
Telia
Tele2
Governance &
Collaboration
Workplace
Marketplace
Community &
Environment

What can Food, Beverage & Personal Care teach other sectors?

Materiality - Community & Environment
Best Practice: Thai Union Group

See how Thai Union Group reported to score 10 on indicator 4.2.1

Programmes - Marketing & Product
Best Practice: Sainsbury’s

See how Sainsbury’s reported to score 10 on indicator 3.3.3

Board Accountability
Best Practice: Unilever

See how Unilever reported to score 10 on indicator 1.2.1

Contact us

We’re here to answer your questions

Sean O’Shea

Head of Corporate Engagement

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Sean works as our Head of Corporate Engagement. Prior to joining Global Child Forum, he worked at the Stockholm School of Economics as a Corporate Project Manager. Before moving to Stockholm in 2021, Sean worked as the Private Secretary to the Ambassador of Japan to the UK and earlier, as a Senior Parliamentary Assistant and Chief of Staff to several members of the UK Parliament. Sean has a degree in Politics and International Relations from the University of Exeter. He joined Global Child Forum in September 2022.
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Matthew Goodwin

Head of Sustainable Investing

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Matthew is pioneering a new role at Global Child Forum as Head of Sustainable Investing, responsible for building Global Child Forum’s relationship with the financial services sector and ensuring that our sustainability data on children’s rights is made available to investors, asset managers and asset owners, helping them integrate children’s rights into their operations and investment decision-making process. Prior to joining Global Child Forum, he spent eight years at Lloyds Banking Group in London. Matthew studied Law and French at Université Paul Cézanne, Aix Marseille III and The University of Sheffield.
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Clémence Gervais

Benchmark manager

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Clémence is Global Child Forum’s Benchmark Manager. She holds a Master’s Degree in Public Health from the French School of Public Health (EHESP), as well as a Master’s Degree in Political Science from Sciences Po Rennes (France). Before joining Global Child Forum, Clémence worked as a Project Officer at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control in Stockholm. Prior to that, she evolved professionally in several organisations in France, Peru, and Sweden, coordinating projects and missions related to social work and public health.
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