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KnowTheChain - Food and beverage company disclosure

KnowTheChain - a partnership between Humanity United, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, Sustainalytics, Thomson Reuters Foundation, and Verite - benchmarked companies on their actions to address forced labour in their supply chains.

In 2016, a KnowTheChain published its first set of benchmarks focusing in the information and communications technology, food and beverage, and apparel and footwear sectors.

In 2018, KnowTheChain will publish the second round of the benchmarks.

Company engagement and disclosure

In 2016, KnowTheChain benchmarked 20 companies in the food and beverage sector. Ahead of benchmark publication, we had invited companies to response to a set of engagement questions that correspond to the benchmark methodology.

In 2018, we have benchmarked 38 food and beverage companies. To reduce the reporting burden for companies, ahead of the 2018 benchmarks, we asked companies to respond to 2-3 questions to point us in the direction of relevant disclosure. Further, we provided companies an opportunity to review the initial research findings, and to provide additional disclosure for indicators where disclosure was missing.

The company disclosures are made publicly available below.

Company name	2016 Disclosure	2018 Disclosure
Ahold Delhaize (Netherlands)	[Not included]	Responded, and provided updated response
Almarai (Saudi Arabia)	[Not included]	No response
Archer Daniels Midland (United States)	No response	Sent link to H2-2017 Human Rights Progress Report
Associated British Foods (United Kingdom)	Provided draft slavery and human trafficking statement*	Responded
BRF (Brazil)	Provided links to this report, these guidelines, this webpage	No response
Campbell Soup (United States)	[Not included]	Responded and provided additional disclosure and further information
Carrefour (France)	[Not included]	Responded
Coca-Cola (United States)	Responded*	Responded and provided additional disclosure, and further information
Coca-Cola European Partners (United Kingdom)	[Not included]	Responded and provided additional disclosure, and further updates
Conagra (United States)	Provided link to citizenship report	No response
Costco (United States)	[Not included]	No response
Danone (France)	Responded	Responded and provided additional disclosure
FEMSA (Mexico)	No response*	No response
General Mills (United States)	Provided links to this report, this policy, and this statement	Provided additional disclosure
Hershey's (United States)	Responded*	Responded
Hormel (United States)	[Not included]	No response
Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group	[Not included]	No response
JBS (Brazil)	Responded	Sent link
Kellogg (United States)	Provided links to this webpage and this webpage	Responded and provided additional disclosure
Kerry Group (Ireland)	[Not included]	Provided additional disclosure
Kraft Heinz (United States)	Submitted this statement*	Pointed to its corporate website and CSR report, and provided additional disclosure
Kroger (United States)	[Not included]	Responded and provided links to its 2016 Sustainability Report, 2017 Sustainability Report, and Statement of Human Rights
Loblaw Companies (Canada)	[Not included]	Responded and provided additional disclosure
Lindt & Sprüngli (Switzerland)	[Not included]	Responded
Mead Johnson, now Reckitt Benckiser (United States)	Responded	[Not included]
Mondelez International (United States)	Responded*	Responded and provided additional disclosure
Monster Beverage (United States)	No response	Provided additional disclosure
Nestlé (Switzerland)	Responded*	Responded
PepsiCo (United States)	Provided this link*	Provided additional disclosure
Smucker’s (United States)	[Not included]	Responded and provided additional disclosure. Also disclosed translations of its * Global Supplier Code (Spanish, French, Portuguese, Vietnamese, and Chinese) * Responsible Sourcing Practices (Spanish, French, Portuguese, Vietnamese, and Chinese)
Suntory Beverage & Food Limited (Japan)	[Not included]	Responded and provided additional disclosure
Tesco (United Kingdom)	[Not included]	Responded and provided additional disclosure
Tyson Foods (United States)	No response	Provided additional disclosure
Unilever (United Kingdom)	Responded	Responded and provided additional disclosure
Walmart (United States)	[Not included]	Responded and sent link to 2018 Global Responsibility Report Summary**
Wesfarmers (Coles) (Australia)	[Not included]	Responded and provided additional disclosure. Also provided several links: * Ethical Sourcing Supplier Requirements (English and Mandarin) * Supplier Approval and Management Using Sedex policy * Child Labour Remediation supplier requirements * E thical Sourcing Policy As well as documents of Coles: Ethical Sourcing Policy (English and Mandarin), Responsible and Ethical Sourcing section, Brand Charter
WH Group (Hong Kong)	[Not included]	No response
Wilmar (Singapore)	Responded*	Responded and provided additional disclosure, and further information
Woolworths (Australia)	[Not included]	Responded and provided additional disclosure

Human rights impacts (note the following information is not included in the benchmark analysis): In addition to providing companies' responses to the disclosure questions, we also provide for users’ reference a link to the company section on Business & Human Rights Resource Centre’s website. These company sections include news and reports about the company’s human rights impacts around the world, covering positive actions and instances of alleged misconduct as well as company responses to incidents (where they provided one). Please click on the company names listed on the left hand side under "Related companies". For further details on our model of change see here.

** Note the 2018 benchmark includes information published as of June 2018, or through August 2018 where companies provided additional disclosure or links. Some companies have since published relevant information. For example:

Walmart - Human Rights policy (Nov 2018)

* Note the 2016 benchmark includes information published as of June 2016. Some companies have since published relevant information. For example:

Associated British Foods - Statement under the UK Mondern Slavery Act (Nov16) and responded to questionnaire on addressing forced labor in sugarcane sourcing (May17)
Coca-Cola - responded to questionnaire on addressing forced labor in sugarcane sourcing (May17)
FEMSA - responded to questionnaire on addressing forced labor in sugarcane sourcing (May17)
Hershey - responded to questionnaire on addressing forced labor in sugarcane sourcing (May17)
Kraft Heinz - Statement under the UK Modern Slavery Act (Sep16)
Mondelez International - responded to questionnaire on addressing forced labor in sugarcane sourcing (May17)
Nestlé - Statement under the UK Modern Slavery Act (Nestle UK) (Sep16), responded to questionnaire on addressing forced labor in sugarcane sourcing and sent Labour Rights in Agriculture Roadmap (May17)
PepsiCo - responded to questionnaire on addressing forced labor in sugarcane sourcing (May17)
Unilever - Statement under the UK Modern Slavery Act (Jan17)
Wilmar - 2015 Sustainability Report; Action Plan to Address Labour Concerns in North Sumatra (Apr17), responded to questionnaire on addressing forced labor in sugarcane sourcing and published sugar supplier list (May17)

Two companies had made their statement under the UK Modern Slavery Act public during or before the 2016 research period: General Mills (May16) and Kellogg (May16).

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KnowTheChain: Ranking of 38 food and beverage companies on efforts to address forced labour in supply chains

Author: KnowTheChain

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12 December 2016

Investor calls on peers to hold portfolio companies in the food sector accountable for forced labour

Author: Huffington Post (Boston Common Asset Management)

"Investors Must Hold Food Companies Accountable for Forced Labor in their Supply Chains", 17 November 2016...

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8 July 2016

Danone response to KnowTheChain engagement questions

Author: Danone

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8 July 2016

Mondelēz International response to KnowTheChain engagement questions

Author: Mondelēz International

KnowTheChain invited 20 apparel and footwear companies to respond to engagement questions about their policies and processes on supply chain forced labour: the responses are considered in the evaluation of each company for the KnowTheChain benchmark,....

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