Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Recruitment & retention
    • Wellbeing
    • Occupational Health
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Recruitment & retention
    • Wellbeing
    • Occupational Health
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise

Occupational HealthLatest NewsWellbeing

Unilever to extend healthy eating campaign

by Personnel Today 26 Apr 2010
by Personnel Today 26 Apr 2010

Consumer goods giant Unilever is set to introduce nutritional labelling on foods in all its canteens by the end of the year, in a major employee health initiative.


The manufacturer, which has long been a pioneer in linking health, nutrition and productivity at work, has completed a year-long pilot project among 175 workers, including offering regular health and weight checks.


At the start of the trial, 104 workers underwent health checks, which found that 48, or 80%, were deemed obese. By the end of the trial, when 42 returned for a second weigh-in, this had fallen to 16, or 38% – a 9% reduction overall.


A similar experiment with the remaining 71 staff was carried out at Unilever’s Port Sunlight factory in Merseyside, where half of the office workers and nearly half of the factory workers taking part agreed that the project had improved the quality of their diet.


The ‘Fit Business’ scheme will now be expanded to all the company’s 7,500 UK workers, with advice also being offered on better diet and exercise, Alan Walters, vice-president of HR, Unilever UK & Ireland, told Occupational Health’s sister title Personnel Today.


Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

“Through taking some simple measures, major employers have a real opportunity to help employees live healthy lives – quickly, on a sufficiently large scale, and with no impact on public spending,” he said. By offering information about calories, sugar, fat and salt, the company was able to help staff make more informed decisions, he said.


“We saw some real changes. Of the people in a factory environment, 19% were taking salt into account. For our business to perform at its best, we want our people to be performing at their best. There are benefits to employees and the business,” said Walters. “By rolling out Fit Business across all of our UK & Ireland sites and sharing our insights into complex behaviour change, we hope to play an important role in helping tackle the rising challenge of obesity facing the UK,” he added.

Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
Food manufacturing riskier profession than construction
next post
Occupational Health news in brief

You may also like

Sandie Peggie launches fresh legal action against NHS...

3 Sep 2025

How to stop flying blind with workforce planning

3 Sep 2025

Specsavers director suspended over wrongful expense claims of...

3 Sep 2025

Salesforce cuts 4,000 customer service roles as AI...

3 Sep 2025

Third of employees ‘anxious’ about lack of workplace...

3 Sep 2025

New ‘failure to prevent fraud’ law a ‘game-changer’

2 Sep 2025

PCs removed from firearms unit after Tallia Storm...

2 Sep 2025

Top 10 HR questions August 2025: Conduct outside...

2 Sep 2025

Nestlé sacks CEO over ‘undisclosed’ romantic affair

2 Sep 2025

Revolut employees to receive share sale payout

2 Sep 2025

  • Work smart – stay well: Avoid unnecessary pain with centred ergonomics SPONSORED | If you often notice...Read more
  • Elevate your L&D strategy at the World of Learning 2025 SPONSORED | This October...Read more
  • How to employ a global workforce from the UK (webinar) WEBINAR | With an unpredictable...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Recruitment & retention
    • Wellbeing
    • Occupational Health
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise