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Mars

Nourishing Wellbeing In Our Marketplaces

As an industry leader, we have an important role to play in nourishing wellbeing in the marketplace through the products we make and the services we provide to people and their pets.

For people

We believe everyone should have access to the products and information they need to enable them to live healthy lives. We’re proud our products and services provide a range of benefits — from nutrition and inspiring shared dinnertimes, to oral care or even just plain fun. 

  • We believe in providing transparent, factual information so consumers can make informed choices. This means providing clear nutritional and ingredient information across our entire food portfolio, including calories on front-of-pack on many of our products. We are also committed to marketing our products honestly and responsibly, a commitment that is underpinned by our Global Marketing Code for Human Food.
  • We continuously look to improve the nutritional content of our products. This includes reducing transfats, sugar, salt, saturated fats and calories whenever possible. Across our entire portfolio, we committed to remove all partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs) and limit the presence of industrially produced transfatty acids to no more than 2g iTFA per 100g of fat or oil — both of which were achieved in 2018. We manage our ongoing compliance by embedding these limits in our supplier specifications and regularly verifying them through quality assurance audits.
  • Our Mars Food & Nutrition business has a simple purpose – Better Food Today, A Better World Tomorrow. In 2016, we set out our Mars Food Health & Wellbeing Ambition to deliver one million more healthy meals shared on dinner tables around the world by 2021. We committed to reduce sodium by an average of 20% across our global Mars Food & Nutrition portfolio, which we met and exceeded in 2019 with an average reduction of 22.3% globally. 
  • We have since updated these commitments to deliver 5.5 billion healthy meals by 2025. We will also add 4 billion servings of vegetables, provide a 30% increase of fiber servings in our products, and an additional 5% reduction of sodium in our portfolio globally by 2025.
    • We are working to ensure that 50% of all Mars Food & Nutrition rice and grain products have at least one serving of whole grains or legumes per serving. In addition, we are rolling out guidance that helps identify “any day” meals and those that are more indulgent and best enjoyed as part of a balanced weekly diet. This guidance is underpinned by our Mars Food Nutrition Criteria. 
    • We are continually looking at ways to expand our offering of healthy, easy, convenient and tasty foods, as evidenced by the addition of Tasty Bite™ and Kevin's Natural Foods(Opens a new window) to the Mars Food & Nutrition portfolio.  
    • We are investing in programs to nourish the wellbeing of communities with a focus on celebrating the importance of shared dinnertimes, including teaching children about nutrition and cooking through our Ben’s Original™-Ben’s Beginners™ program. 
  • Beyond main meal foods, Mars Snacking brands have been inspiring moments of happiness for over 100 years. We’re dedicated to providing information to enable consumers to make the best choices at the right moments for them and their family. That means continuing to introduce new offerings that are more nutritious and better support consumer lifestyles. 
    • Our first step is to ensure all of our treats and snacks contain no more than 250 calories per serving, and today over half of our global portfolio contains no more than 200 calories per single serving.
    • Concurrently, our most-loved brands like SNICKERS® and MARS® are showing up in new varieties, like 100-calorie portions and bars with more protein and reduced sugar. 
    • Our snacking portfolio expanded in 2023 with the official onboarding of TrüFrü. The frozen range provides less than 100 calories per serving.
    • We have also broadened our snacking portfolio by bringing KIND and Nature’s Bakery into our family of Mars brands. Recommended foods, such as nuts and whole grains, are the first ingredient in our recipes.
    • Mars Snacking also supports strong, healthy smiles through the oral care benefits of sugar-free gum through the Wrigley Oral Healthcare Program. 
       

For pets

At Mars, we know that pets truly make the world a better place. That’s why we’re inspired to make A Better World For Pets™ — supporting a world where they’re happy, healthy and welcome. When it comes to our all-encompassing pet business, from nutritious pet food and high-quality medical care to innovative technology services, all our products are supported by science and backed by data to understand and support pets’ specific needs. 

  • Our world-renowned WALTHAM Petcare Science Institute is a breakthrough science center focused on advancing the health and wellbeing of pets. The Institute’s research supports the development of Mars Petcare products, in addition to driving preventive health for pets. 
  • Our growing veterinary health services include veterinary and diagnostic businesses across 15 countries. We offer everything from general healthcare and wellbeing for pets to specialist services for some of the health challenges faced by pets.  
  • Our focus on science and data has also enabled breakthrough innovation in proactive pet health. For example, our diagnostic laboratory, Antech™, offers tools to provide greater specificity in diagnostics, allowing for more precision in identifying pet diseases. 
     

For people and pets

Accumulating research shows the benefits of human-animal interaction. Studies funded by the WALTHAM Petcare Science Institute show that pets can have significant physical and psychosocial benefits to humans. These benefits inspired us to create and implement pet-friendly offices, where pets aren't just welcome, but are a fundamental part of our workplace culture.  

The power of human-animal interaction also defines the Mars Better Cities for Pets™ Initiative, a program which helps communities establish more pet-friendly policies in four key focus areas: shelters, homes, parks and businesses.