Policies And Guidelines Vision, Mission And Core Values

ITC Food Products Policy

It is ITC’s policy that its food products should provide nutritious, tasty, hygienic and convenient options to the consuming public.

ITC will offer food products across multiple categories, price points, delivery formats and segments as dictated by the needs of the consumer.

ITC’s portfolio of food products will be continuously improved and modified to -

offer new products that meet the aspiration of the changing consumer,

offer food products with affordable and appropriate nutrition,

offer food products with micronutrient fortification,

drive reduction of sodium, sugar and fat in Products,

offer trans-fat free products,

offer functional food products with focus on India specific metabolic disorders,

follow a strict code for making product functional claims,

follow the highest standards in nutrition labelling and reporting,

follow responsible marketing and consumer communications practices,

create and sustain R&D focus in development of new products and processes,

follow the highest standards of hygiene and manufacturing practices in all delivery formats,

collaborate with experts and institutions

ensure widespread accessibility to healthy products through appropriate pricing and wide distribution.

Policy Framework and Strategies

As with all laws, ITC’s Food products will adhere to all legal and regulatory requirements as prescribed from time to time.

To offer new products that meet the aspiration of the changing consumer.

As the aspiration of the consumer changes, new products will be developed and launched to meet the taste, nutrition and convenience expectations of future consumers.

To offer products with affordable and appropriate nutrition.

Recommendations of the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), India, will be referred to, to assess nutritional appropriateness of ITC’s food products. Efforts will be made to offer products with appropriate nutrient density for mass consumption, including catering to the needs of those sections of the society who are economically disadvantaged.

To offer products with micro-nutrient fortification.

ITC's food products will be suitably fortified with micro-nutrients (iron, calcium, zinc, iodine, folic acid, other vitamins and minerals) wherever feasible. ITC’s R&D will continue to carry out suitable research programmes to make fortified nutrients more biologically available and functional.

To drive reduction of sodium, sugar and fat in products

ITC’s R&D will endeavour to find solutions aimed at reducing fat, sugar and sodium (“FSS”) in food products, without impacting the taste profile of the product. In addition to scientific solutions, ITC will also adopt the Adaptation Methodology to reduce these ingredients in a gradual manner. Guidelines will be made and tangible targets will be set for the new product development teams to reduce the above ingredients in the new products. ITC will endeavour to introduce such Reduced FSS products in the market by year 2013.

To offer Trans Fat Free Products

To disclose added trans-fats, if any, in all food products. To work towards not using any hydrogenated oil in all food products by the year 2015.

To offer functional food products with focus on India-specific metabolic disorders

ITC, with well-researched functional ingredients, will endeavour to make functional food products suitable for consumption by Indians who suffer from metabolic disorders. ITC will release such functional products to the consumer, only after fully understanding the mechanism of action of the functional ingredients at the molecular level. Integrative biology approaches will be employed to study these ingredients’ efficacy.

To follow a strict code for making product functional claims

ITC will conduct clinical trials in India by using Indian subjects to study the efficacy of its functional foods. Experts’ opinion will be taken to design the clinical studies and suitable statistical methods will be employed to interpret the clinical study data. Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines will be referred to and followed in all clinical studies. Functional claims will be made only after statistical significance is observed.

To follow the highest standards in nutrition labelling and reporting

ITC’s packaged food products’ labelling will be comprehensive with good clarity on the contents of all macro and micro-nutrients. The nutrient content will be compared with the NIN recommended Daily Value (DV) and the percentage in the product will be reported.

To follow responsible marketing and consumer communication practices

Apart from complying with all local laws and regulations, advertisements of ITC’s food products will also adhere to the ASCI Code. All product communication to the consumer will appropriately represent the products. Internal audits will be done on marketing practices and, if needed, corrective action will be taken. Efforts will be made to promote nutritious foods and educate the rural consumer in food hygiene.

To create and sustain R&D focus in development of new products and processes

ITC’s R&D organisation is structured to research exploratory subjects and applied research subjects. ITC’s R&D infrastructure is of international standards, and has been certified with ISO 14001-2004 for EHS and ISO 17025 NABL for analytical processes. There are more than 100 scientists conducting R&D on several food related platforms. ITC will continuously strive to contemporise its R&D infrastructure to meet changing nutrition needs.

To follow the highest standards of hygiene and manufacturing practices in all delivery formats

ITC Hotels R&D endeavours to practice GHP & GMP (Good Hygiene Practices & Good Manufacturing Practices) along with ISO 22000 food safety management system implementation with PAS 220 relevant applications. ITC hotels will stringently follow all applicable regulatory requirements, with particular focus on risk minimisation and elimination.

To collaborate with experts and institutions

ITC believes in collaborating with outside experts to upgrade the knowledge of its personnel with a view to guiding the food business in developing products with balanced nutrition and functional ingredients. ITC will continue to collaborate with national and international institutions for scientific research and specific projects. ITC believes in using an Open Innovation policy in developing its R&D for food products.

To ensure widespread accessibility of healthy products through pricing and distribution

ITC will ensure the widest accessibility to its healthy food products through ensuring national geographic distribution across both urban and rural centres, using its FMCG distribution infrastructure and its e-choupal related rural distribution reach. ITC will also ensure accessibility across demographics through adopting a portfolio approach across all relevant price segments.

Policy on HIV/AIDS

Policy

The Company’s policy on HIV/AIDS with regard to its employees will, at a minimum, comply with all relevant Central and State legislations and the Company will implement all policies and directives of the Government regarding HIV/AIDS whenever issued.

The Company will provide to all its employees sensitive, accurate and the latest information about risk reduction strategies in their personal lives, with the objective of reducing the stigma of HIV/AIDS, encouraging safe behaviour and improving understanding of treatment. The Company is committed to providing a safe and healthy workplace to all its employees. It is the Company’s objective that employees will have access to health services to prevent and manage HIV/AIDS.

The Company will not discriminate against any employee infected by HIV/AIDS with regard to promotions, training and other privileges and benefits as applicable to all employees. All HIV positive employees will be allowed to continue to work in their jobs unless (a) medical conditions interfere with the specific job being done, in which case reasonable alternative working arrangements will be made; or (b) the employee is incapacitated to perform his/her duties and is declared medically unfit by a medical doctor, in which case the employee will be assisted to rehabilitate himself/herself outside the Company.

The Company will not make pre-employment HIV/AIDS screening mandatory as part of its fitness-to-work assessment. Screening of this kind refers to direct methods (HIV testing), indirect methods (assessment of risk behaviour), and questions about HIV tests already taken. HIV/AIDS test will not be part of the annual health check-up unless specifically requested for by an employee.

Voluntary testing for HIV/AIDS, when requested for by the employee, will be carried out by private or community health services and not at the workplace. There will be no obligation on the part of the employees to inform the Company about their clinical status in relation to HIV/AIDS. Information on clinical diagnosis of an employees’ status in terms of his/her HIV/AIDS status, if advised to the Company, will be kept strictly confidential.

Implementation

This policy is publicly available throughout the Company and clearly communicated to all employees in a manner in which it can be understood through induction programmes, policy manuals and intranet portals.

The responsibility for the implementation of the policy rests with the Unit Human Resources Departments. A report is provided to the Divisional Head on such programmes.

Monitoring & Auditing

Compliance with the Policy is regularly monitored by the Unit Head.