Coca-Cola, Associated British Foods and PepsiCo are among the food and drink companies being called on to address forced labour risks in their supply chains.
The Business and Human Rights Rescource Centre’s latest food and beverage report found that the 60 largest companies in the sector scored just 16 out of 100 when it comes to tackling risks of exploitation.
The group found many cases of businesses failing to identify or prevent abuse against migrant workers, and as a result, it is calling on the industry to “urgently improve its performance” when it comes to remedying modern slavery risks in their supply chains.
Exploitative practices were most commonly reported in commodities such as rice, tea, wheat, cattle, coffee, fish and beans.
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Coca-Cola Europacific Partners was one of the lowest scoring companies at 10 out of 100, while PepsiCo, ABF and Sainsbury’s scored 17, 22 and 38, respectively.
Saputo is among those scoring below 10 and BHRRC said, along with the other low ranking businesses, the dairy processor “disclosed no comprehensive tracing or transparency of its supply chain across the commodities it sources.”
Leading retailer Tesco came in at second place in the rankings with a score of 52, behind Australian retailer Woolworths Group at 56, both of which are the only businesses to score more than 50.
BHRRC said that while both companies still have “room to improve,” it added that they “provide examples of better practice in addressing forced labour risks within the sector, posting particularly stronger scores on key themes such as recruitment.
“Others in the benchmark have no excuse for not following this lead.”
