Huel – the brand on a mission to make nutritionally complete, convenient, affordable food – recently announces its partnership with Tony’s Chocolonely’s Open Chain, the industry lead initiative that helps brands transform their cocoa supply chains and become sustainability frontrunners.
The partnership seeks to revolutionise the cocoa sourcing practices in the food industry and ensure that Huel’s products are made with cocoa that supports farmers to earn a living income, eradicate illegal labour and stop deforestation. Collaborating with Tony’s Open Chain aligns perfectly with Huel’s core values of providing nutritionally complete, sustainable, and ethical products to its customers. By sourcing cocoa through the Tony’s Chocolonely Open Chain, Huel can ensure that its cocoa supply meets the highest standards of sustainability and ethical practices.
Jess Sansom, Sustainability Director at Huel, says: “Huel is super excited to be joining Tony’s Open Chain. We strongly believe that it is possible to create a sustainable food system, and Tony’s mission and work in West Africa is proving what is possible. The 5 sourcing principles are holistic, the approach is collaborative, and the results speak for themselves. We are looking forward to working alongside other Mission Allies, and calling upon other brands to join Open Chain and make a difference.
By teaming up with Tony’s Chocolonely Open Chain, Huel is making a long term commitment to a sustainable supply chain that has been meticulously designed to ensure living incomes are paid, that the cocoa is 100% traceable with a direct link to farmers, that farmers are supported to increase productivity, and that child labour is eradicated. The collaboration is an exciting next step of Huel’s goal to only work with suppliers that share the same values and goals as the leading nutritional brand. Huel requires all their suppliers to sign a contractually-binding Sustainability Code of Conduct for the protection of human rights and welfare. They also require their suppliers to hold an independently verified, internationally recognised ethical certification.
Huel is also committed to reaching a Net Zero target by reducing greenhouse gas emissions across its business operations and ensuring that the carbon footprint of each individual product is aligned with limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees.
With the food system responsible for over a 1/3 of global greenhouse gas emissions, changing our diets is one of the most straightforward and significant means to effectively decrease emissions. By ensuring that each meal maintains a carbon footprint of approximately 0.5kg CO2e or less, Huel is committed to making all their meals achieve this objective. In parallel, Huel’s collaboration with Tony’s Chocolonely Open Chain perfectly aligns with their ethos, as Tony’s Chocolonely is widely recognised for its commitment and progress in establishing a sustainable cocoa supply chain that offers genuine solutions to the industry’s challenges.
Chief of Impact and Operations at Tony’s Chocolonely, Pascal Baltussen, says: “At Tony’s Open Chain we envision a future where cocoa farmers in Cote D’Ivoire and Ghana earn a living income, child labour is eradicated, and deforestation is stopped. The five sourcing principles that Tony’s Open Chain has implemented over the past 10 years is showing that this future is feasible, the biggest driver for change is scale. We are incredibly proud to have Pleese as our first UK Mission Ally, and Huel as our second, and we are convinced this will be the first and second of many. Together we can bring equality and eradicate exploitation in cocoa in West Africa.”
In order to create a truly equitable and sustainable cocoa industry significant change is needed. It is essential for all chocolate companies to collaborate and join forces to ensure that all chocolate is completely free from child labour and illegal labour.