Hessle-based food producer Cranswick has been ranked as Number One in the second annual edition of The Better Food Index, climbing from the third place it managed last year.
Compiled by Tortoise Media, The Better Food Index is a comprehensive ranking of the performance of the UK’s largest food companies, based on their social and environmental impact.
Leading a field of 30 of the UK’s largest food companies, Cranswick outperformed peers in a combined score across five key areas: Environment, Nutrition, Social Impact, Affordability and Financial Sustainability. Using over 100 indicators from a range of publicly available sources, the Index compared Cranswick’s commitments alongside performance to arrive at the top score.
The index also emphasises the importance of transparent and comprehensive reporting, with companies scored on their transparency, the aim is to encourage companies to reveal their true impact, and to disentangle poor reporting from poor performance, therefore fuelling a data-driven race to the top of the ranking, which, Cranswick are proud to have secured this year, being named number one in the transparency listing.
A spokesman for Cranswick said: “This result sees an improvement on last year’s third place position, demonstrating Cranswick’s continuous commitment to making sustainability a priority through the Second Nature initiative and taking all possible steps to ensure a positive impact within its business operations.”
Jeevan Vasagar, Climate Editor at Tortoise Media, said: “The cost-of-living crisis, combined with the growing impact of climate change, underline the urgency of making our food system more nutritious, affordable and sustainable. This year’s Better Food Index shows us where progress has been made – and how much the companies that make our food have left to do.”
