ATNi urges food industry to prioritize nutrition for commercial success in Africa

The Access to Nutrition initiative’s (ATNi) recent webinar explored the main drivers of consumer demands in Africa alongside the role of private-sector strategies and policy frameworks in encouraging the adoption of nutritious diets. 

Nutrition Insight speaks with the nonprofit to learn how retailers, brands, suppliers, and governments can help improve the food environment in the region.

Webinar presenter and researcher Freddie von Kaufmann observes that food manufacturers and retailers increasingly influence what people consume across Africa, especially in urban and peri-urban areas.

“Our findings show that these companies are not yet consistently supporting healthier diets,” he tells us. “Healthier products represent a minority of assessed private-label portfolios and online promotions, while healthier baskets generally cost more than less healthy ones.”

“Alongside this, the majority of companies lack comprehensive nutrition strategies, targets, and public reporting, with companies in higher-income countries generally performing better across these areas.”

Attention on improving health in Africa has come under the spotlight after the recently published 2026 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World underscored that, although global hunger eased slightly, Africa now ranks highest, with 309 million people affected. Healthy diets became more costly in 2025 and out of reach for 66.6% of Africa’s population.

Nutrition as a strategic business priority

ATNi’s webinar framed a tension between commercial objectives, affordability, and nutrition goals. Sharing a key finding from its benchmarking, senior researcher Brenda de Kok tells us that trade-offs between commercial success and healthier portfolios are not required.

“Although some companies are currently the exception rather than the norm, we do see some examples of companies with relatively healthier product portfolios that also hold strong market positions, demonstrating that nutrition and commercial performance can be compatible.”

“A common feature of these companies is that they tend to treat nutrition as a strategic business priority, rather than a standalone corporate responsibility initiative,” she notes. “This is reflected across their business practices in areas such as targets for portfolio healthiness and responsible labeling and marketing practices.”

ATNi finds companies are not yet consistently supporting healthier diets in Africa.ATNi suggests companies integrate affordability into nutrition strategies by setting measurable targets and clearly defining “affordability” and “healthy.” Companies are also recommended to close the price gap between healthier and less healthy products while increasing the availability of affordable private-label options.

Furthermore, she points to Carrefour as a successful example from ATNi’s global research. The retail store committed to removing controversial additives from its private-label products as part of its nutrition strategy. This was also used as a form of competitive advantage while meeting consumer demand.

“Carrefour, and other French retailers we assessed, also have strong commitments to displaying Nutri-Score across their private label portfolios, thereby supporting consumers in making healthier choices,” says De Kok.

ATNi’s Retail Assessment in Kenya reveals no evidence of responsible marketing policies or initiatives to encourage healthier choices in select retailers, not even restrictions on marketing toward children. The majority of the promotions were noted for unhealthy products.

Thus, ANTi urges companies to boost responsible marketing, especially by creating policies that ban marketing products that do not meet nutrition standards to children under 18.

Manufacturer influence over smaller retailers

ATNi’s report examines the leading formal retailers across Kenya, which are increasingly influencing diets, notes Von Kaufmann.

Although a lot of Africa’s food retail runs through informal markets rather than formal retailers, companies also sell products via informal retail channels, he adds. “We nonetheless recognize that informal markets remain critical, particularly for fresh foods, and represent an important area for future study.”

“However, these manufacturers have an opportunity — and responsibility — to improve the nutritional quality of products across the food environment, regardless of where consumers purchase them.”

Transparent benchmarking

According to ATNi, companies should be held accountable through transparent benchmarking, which can drive change by comparing companies.

Van Kaufmann says manufacturers have an opportunity and responsibility to improve the nutritional quality of products across the food environment.Von Kaufmann adds that transparency “provides investors, policymakers, and civil society with objective evidence on performance and identifies areas for companies to improve.”

“Benchmarking is also a crucial first step for measuring what is happening in a food environment and can directly support the strengthening of regulatory frameworks through highlighting where regulation is needed and serving as a baseline to measure the possible impact of introduced regulations.”

He explains that these reasons drive ATNi to work closely with local partners to ensure research reflects priorities on the ground and can support policy action. The company calls on companies to publicly report on nutrition governance and progress annually alongside the share of healthier private-label sales.

Responsibly shape food environments

Shifting the demand toward nutritious diets in Africa is not just about individual choice, states De Kok. It is largely influenced by the food environment, depending on which products are available, affordable, and marketed.

“Companies play a major role through the products they develop, price, promote, and place on shelves. At the same time, our research consistently shows that self-regulation alone is not sufficient.”

The ATNi report advocates that companies improve the overall nutrition quality of their products through reformulation and innovation while selecting healthier supplier options. They should also set targets to reduce sodium, sugars, and saturated fat, especially for products under snacks, baked goods, sauces, and confectionery.

Furthermore, companies can reduce unnecessary additive use, increase the availability of minimally processed options, and collaborate with suppliers on shared healthy product targets. If applicable, companies are also encouraged to align their products with national fortification requirements.

“Meanwhile, governments have a crucial role to play in shaping the incentives under which companies operate, ideally through a coherent package of policies, including front-of-pack labeling, marketing restrictions, and nutrition standards for public procurement,” says Von Kaufmann.

The researchers call for a nationally endorsed nutrient profiling model to form the basis of policies by ensuring a consistent definition of healthier and less healthy foods.