October 2, 2018
Launched today, KnowTheChain’s 2018 Food and Beverage benchmark ranks 38 of 
the largest global companies in the sector on how they address forced labor in their supply chains, evaluating them on their forced labor policies and practices.
The report finds that while many of the companies evaluated have policies and commitments in place, the majority do not provide evidence of those policies in practice. Ranked across seven benchmark themes, companies scored the lowest on worker voice and recruitment, indicating that little or no action is taken to listen to, engage with, or empower workers across company supply chains.
While the majority of companies have improved their disclosure and practices since 2016, the average score across the benchmark remains low at 30 out of 100, indicating that companies need to take further action to address forced labor risks across all tiers of their supply chains.
“Forced labor remains a major problem in the production of popular food and beverage products,” said Kilian Moote, project director for KnowTheChain. “While it’s encouraging to see some companies making additional commitments since the 2016 benchmark, progress for workers is not moving fast enough. Companies across the board must do better to make demonstrable improvements for workers.”
In addition to ranking companies, this report provides good practice examples and recommendations for companies. It also evaluates corporate commitments and compliance with relevant regulations and provides considerations for investor action.