Here is a sequnce of emails I sent to Nestle (Cereal Partners) concerning a box of Shreddies I purchased. I didn’t manage to find out very much, but I did get some information. Can anyone tell me why me (us) knowing the exact suppliers of dried fruit, Maize bran, sliced almonds etc would be a threat and us not knowing gives Nestle a competitive edge over it’s rivals? I’d be highly surprised if Nestle’s rivals didn’t already know who supplies Nestle. But there you go. My thanks go to John Gavin at Nestle for answering me as fully as he could.
From: Simon Warrick [mailto:simon@trulyresponsible.org]
Sent: 03 October 2005 10:36
To: Consumer Relations,WELWYN,CRD
Subject: Nestle ShreddiesHello,
I am a regular consumer of your products. Over the past few years there have been a number of food scares, and the food industry in general has always been quick to point out that it has full traceability of ingredients in place. As a consumer I would like to put this to the test and publish the results on a website. I intend to publish this email and any responses I receive. I will also publish information concerning the products for which I am unable to get a response.
For my breakfast today I ate a bowl of Nestle Shreddies.
The Best Before End date was 28 05 06 and other numbers on this label were 52380944W 00:28.
Please can you tell me the batch numbers and source of the top 3 ingredients that were used to make this batch of cereal.
I look forward to your response.
Best regards
Simon
From: Consumer Relations,WELWYN,CRD [mailto:Consumer.Relations@cpuk.nestle.com]
Sent: 04 October 2005 10:39
To: Simon Warrick
Subject: RE: Nestle ShreddiesDear Simon
Many thanks for your enquiry. We have a comprehensive trace ability back through the supply chain and the software is regularly tested. For commercial reasons we only share details of our supply base with the appropriate regulatory authorities.
I am sorry that we are unable to offer the specific details that you have requested.
Thank you for taking the time to contact us and for showing an interest in Cereal Partners UK.
Regards
Consumer RelationsFrom: Simon Warrick [mailto:simon@trulyresponsible.org]
Sent: 04 October 2005 15:18
To: Consumer Relations,WELWYN,CRD
Subject: RE: Nestle ShreddiesDear Customer Relations,
Thank you very much for your prompt response.
I understand that you are not prepared to tell me where the ingredients I am eating have come from. I am concerned as a consumer that I should have the right to know this information as I am eating something which you are making. I would like to understand more about what the commercial reasons are that make it impossible for you to provide the answers. Surely transparency is the key to consumer trust?
I wonder if you could answer a few less demanding questions?
Please can you tell me the Country of Origin of the 3 top ingredients in this particular batch of Shreddies?
Please can you confirm that all of the ingredients are GM free?
Who are the appropriate regulatory authorities that I should approach in order to check this?
Thank you very much for your time and help with this.
Simon
From: Consumer Relations,WELWYN,CRD [mailto:Consumer.Relations@cpuk.nestle.com]
Sent: 06 October 2005 11:15
To: Simon Warrick
Subject: RE: Nestle ShreddiesDear Simon,
Many thanks for your reply.
We operate in a very competitive market and it is not in the business’ interests to divulge detailed product information, or our suppliers
However, I can confirm our suppliers are European. The regulatory bodies that we share our information with are the Environmental Health Office, for food safety, and the Trading Standards Office, for labelling regulations.
We can confirm Nestlé breakfast cereals do not contain any genetically modified materials. If at any time in the future such materials are used, the pack will be clearly labelled in accordance with government legislation.
I hope this answers yours questions.
Regards
Jane
Consumer RelationsFrom: Simon Warrick [mailto:simon@trulyresponsible.org]
Sent: 06 October 2005 14:26
To: Consumer Relations,WELWYN,CRD
Subject: RE: Nestle ShreddiesHello Jane,
Thank you very much for replying. I hope I am not being a nuisance?
I understand that you operate in a very competitive market and that revealing detailed product information or names of suppliers to me is not your policy. I think I can understand your reluctance to reveal this, I do however believe it to be unfounded. In practice I am sure your competitors already know who your suppliers are, as you will no doubt know who their suppliers are.
I am however extremely interested in understanding more about what I consume. I am surprised by the difficulty I have in finding out the origins of the manufactured products I buy. I would like to understand more about why I cannot be told this basic information. It makes no sense to me at all. All I do is eat the stuff you make. As a consumer I am not reassured by a big brand name, or the presence of regulations and auditors to check the regulations are being adhered to. I find honesty and openness in a corporation a far more reassuring quality.
If I buy things from the local market the producers there are always extremely keen to tell me everything they can about what they produce and make. They will tell me the day on which animals were slaughtered, even how long they had to wait at the slaughter house before being killed, which field the vegetables were grown in and so on. All of this information for a meat pie! In the same location there are often other suppliers and competitors selling similar products. The one able to provide the most information is always the one I’d choose every time - even if it costs a bit more. These folks are proud of what they do, and happy to tell me their product story. We’re not talking rocket science to do this, and it connects me with what I consume.
I firmly believe that telling the story wouldn’t harm your business at all, indeed I believe it has the potential to improve it. If another company produced Shreddies (which I don’t think they do?), I’d buy the pack that told me the most about the stuff and assume that the pack without the information was either trying to hide something or simply didn’t care or know. I suspect that this is also true of most people who have never given it a second thought.
Why is a box of Shreddies different from something I could buy from a local market with full disclosure? Why can’t Nestle tell me the story? I really would like a detailed explanation of why the Nestle strategy is not to be totally transparent about the ingredients in their products. Is that possible? For example - what evidence does Nestle have that answering these questions would in anyway undermine it’s business? Have you done any consumer research in this area etc?
Your answers have led me to want to ask more and taken me down a path I didn’t expect to go. If you could please answer the above in some detail I’ll be satisfied.
Thank you once again for your time.
Best regards
Simon
From: Consumer Relations,WELWYN,CRD [mailto:Consumer.Relations@cpuk.nestle.com]
Sent: 11 October 2005 09:17
To: Simon Warrick
Subject: RE: Nestle ShreddiesDear Simon
Whilst the regulatory authorities have open access to all such information Cereal Partners UK protocol is not do disclose any details of its supply base.
One reason behind this is because we want to be honest and accurate, but these supply situations change regularly and we do not want to be over simplistic. Almost all our ingredients come from UK suppliers, but we swap them around e.g. sugar comes from Tate+Lyle or British Sugar, and wheat is supplied by any of 5 traders from ~500 farmers.
Shreddies also have barley malt, salt and vits supplied from UK suppliers (at least, for this year!)
As an international business, we have complex supply lines, so your comparison with small suppliers giving life histories of the meat, is not comparing like for like.
You mention that you want to know more about what you eat, but that doesn’t correlate with queries on which supplier we use. E.g. cereal grains such as wheat are ostensibly the same from each farmer who meets our stringent requirements.
In response to your earlier questions, we reiterate our response made at that time. The main ingredients for Shreddies are sourced within Europe. All our suppliers have to maintain full traceability processes, allowing us to verify food quality and safety, and these businesses are regularly audited.
We can confirm Nestlé breakfast cereals do not contain any genetically modified materials. If at any time in the future such materials are used, the pack will be clearly labelled in accordance with government legislation.
Regards
John Gavin
Director of Quality & Regulatory Affairs
From: Simon Warrick [mailto:simon@trulyresponsible.org]
Sent: 11 October 2005 09:58
To: Consumer Relations,WELWYN,CRD
Subject: RE: Nestle ShreddiesHello John,
Thank you for your detailed and very helpful response.
I recognise that my example of a local market producer being able to tell me everything about a particular batch of pies is a long way from the world of mass produced food. That said though, at the batch level I am sure you must know who provided which ingredients, and I do not really understand what the commercial reasoning is behind you not be willing to tell me this for the batch of cereals I quoted.
Your statement :
You mention that you want to know more about what you eat, but that doesn’t correlate with queries on which supplier we use. E.g. cereal grains such as wheat are ostensibly the same from each farmer who meets our stringent requirements.
I find this very interesting. I believe you are missing the point of my questions. If you will allow me to explain.
This precisely correlates with wanting to know more about “what” I eat. I cannot possibly know what I eat without understanding where it has come from. Whilst I accept that cereal grains are a commodity and I also suspect that if tested, one batch will be pretty much the same as another from an intrinisic quality perspective. However, the way in which they are grown, the location of the farms, the level of artificial fertilizer used, the run off into the local water courses, the number of times they were treated with herbicides and pesticides, the effect on wildlife surrounding the farms, the energy put into their production and so on I am sure is wildly different. It is this extrinsic quality information that connects me with what I eat, not the amorphous mass of grain used. For example I would like to be able to see the farms where my food came from. I am disgusted by some of the things put onto fields near where I live, and would never knowingly buy food produced from those fields, but I have no idea if I am already consuming it!
I personally believe that if a big food producer could reconnect people with what they consume it would be good for business. At the moment I feel very remote from what I consume, I know little of how it is grown, where it is grown, what the production processes are, how far it is transported and so on. This concerns me. I know I am not alone.
As I am sure you will guess from my questions, this is something I am passionate about. I am asking many big producers the same or similar questions, so that I can gain a better understanding of the issues involved in the lack of transparency around this. The big brands ask us as consumers to trust them, but when asked they rarely pass on the information requested. More and more people are asking for this information and the food scares that occur from time to time eat away at that trust.
I have one final question: Please can I come and see how my Shreddies are made, starting from the begining of your supply chain to the point at which the Shreddies are boxed and ready to go to a retailer? I’d be more than happy to sign a confidentiality agreement or NDA etc.
Thank you very much for your time.
Best regards
Simon
From: Consumer Relations,WELWYN,CRD [mailto:Consumer.Relations@cpuk.nestle.com]
Sent: 14 October 2005 15:26
To: Simon Warrick
Subject: RE: Nestle ShreddiesDear Simon
I’m sorry to say we will not be able to satisfy your request in the detail you require. The reasons why we keep certain supply details hidden from competitors or journalists [i.e. as the public] is due to commercial realities. The exact suppliers of our dried fruit, Maize bran, sliced almonds etc is a competitive edge over rivals, so is closely guarded.
The quality of our brands is a critical business cornerstone, and this is obviously dependant on our control of the ingredient supply, so for example we only buy wheat from ‘Farm Assured’ growers, an accreditation scheme which monitors aspects of pesticide use etc, and our Quality Assurances department rejects deliveries failing to meet our exacting standards. We regularly analyse for any contaminants and share these results with the regulators such as the FSA.
If we gave you the list of >500 farmers across 4 counties supplying us with wheat, you could never get to see the one supplying the cereal packet you are about to eat so you could not make a selective judgement.
Also, more apologies as for food safety and public liability insurance reasons, we had to stop running tours of our plants 15 years ago.
Food safety comes first every time, after that, openness is a relative term which has major financial constraints. The easy answer would be for us to simply give you some Farmers/suppliers names, but that would simply lead to resisting other queries and that would be dishonest.
It is with regret that I cannot be of any further assistance in respect of this matter.
Regards,
John Gavin
Director of Quality & Regulatory Affairs