Oxfam’s Behind the Barcodes campaign calls for [supermarkets] to do much more to respect the rights of the people producing the food on their shelves. 

We ask that they go beyond tick-box social audits of their suppliers, which often miss critical issues, and invest in robust processes of human rights due diligence using tools such as HRIAs. Netherlands’ biggest supermarket, Albert Heijn, recently committed to undertake six HRIAs per year. 

Last month Oxfam published a new HRIA of the Italian processed tomato supply chains of S-Group, Finland’s biggest supermarket. As far as we know, it is the most comprehensive such assessment conducted by a major food retailer to date. 

Beyond the findings about the Italian processed tomato sector specifically, what can supermarkets that want to go beyond using social audits, like Albert Heijn, learn from the HRIA process itself?

1. The approach is scalable ...

2. Access to stakeholders at all stages of the value chain is critical ...

3. Commercial transparency is possible ...

4. Root cause analysis is the bridge between identified impacts and recommended actions ...

5. The new OECD Due Diligence Guidance can help to resolve tricky questions ...

Any HRIA should be followed by a public, time-bound action plan that responds to its findings and recommendations...