Nexture has released its inaugural Group Sustainability Report, creating a unified basis for decarbonisation, responsible procurement and ingredient innovation. The food ingredients company aims to make sustainability a consistent part of its operations, supply networks and long-term growth strategy.
Issued on 7 October 2026, the report consolidates the 2025 environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of CSM Ingredients, HIFOOD, Italcanditi, Comprital and Prodotti Rubicone. By bringing the businesses into one reporting structure, Nexture has established a reference point for measuring progress and embedding sustainability into strategic planning, operational management and business decisions.
The initiative reflects the complexity of managing sustainability across multiple ingredient categories, including bakery, confectionery, dairy alternatives, beverages and plant-based foods. It also aligns with broader food and beverage industry trends, as manufacturers and suppliers face growing expectations around emissions, sourcing, transparency and product impact.
“This report builds on years of commitment by CSM Ingredients and Italcanditi, now brought together under one Group framework,” said Gabriele Del Torchio, chairman of Nexture. “I am proud of what our teams have achieved so far, and confident that a shared approach will help us go even further, creating lasting value for all our stakeholders.”
Four pillars guide the group’s sustainability agenda
Nexture has organised its sustainability programme around four connected areas: People, Planet, Product and Governance. The framework is intended to coordinate environmental action, social responsibility, supply-chain oversight and innovation across the group’s companies.
During 2025, Nexture introduced a group-wide sustainability governance model and formed a dedicated Sustainability Committee. The company also incorporated ESG due diligence into its supplier onboarding process. Its objective is to assess every new supplier against ESG criteria and broaden Sedex monitoring throughout the business.
Responsible sourcing remains a central priority. In 2025, Rainforest Alliance-certified cocoa accounted for 74% of the group’s total cocoa purchases, while 67% of its palm oil was RSPO certified. Nexture has set a target of procuring all palm oil and palm oil derivatives from verified sustainable sources by 2030.
The report also details initiatives designed to improve agricultural supply chains. Italcanditi bought approximately 20,000 tonnes of beet sugar in 2025. At the company’s Goes facility in the Netherlands, all sugar came from Royal Cosun, an agricultural cooperative whose grower programme supports better soil and water management, increased climate resilience and biodiversity protection.
These activities reflect the rising importance of responsible procurement within food manufacturing trends. Ingredient companies must increasingly demonstrate not only the quality and reliability of their raw materials, but also how those materials are produced and sourced.
Improving energy performance and resource circularity
Manufacturing efficiency forms a major part of Nexture’s environmental programme. Renewable sources supplied 94% of the group’s electricity in 2025. In addition, the Green Zeus energy-efficiency initiative reduced energy consumption at several manufacturing locations and delivered annual savings of more than €300,000.
Nexture also reported that none of its waste went to landfill during the year. Across the group, 4,586 tonnes of material were recycled and a further 864 tonnes were reused.
The company is applying a similar focus to food and drink packaging. Its targets for 2030 call for 90% of packaging to be recyclable, with recycled content accounting for 45% and renewable materials representing another 45%.
These objectives give Nexture measurable operational benchmarks for future reporting. They also respond to pressures affecting the wider food and beverage sector, where businesses are working to lower emissions, reduce material use and improve resource efficiency without compromising ingredient performance, production reliability or finished-product quality.
Packaging improvements, renewable energy procurement and waste recovery are increasingly connected to customer requirements, retailer expectations and evolving food and drink regulations. As a result, sustainability performance is becoming an important consideration throughout the ingredient supply chain.
Product carbon data supports innovation
Nexture is extending its sustainability work beyond manufacturing by developing ingredient solutions intended to address resource pressures and changing formulation needs.
The company launched its Product Carbon Footprinting programme in 2025. Its first assessment found that Egg ’n Easy Plus, an egg-reduction ingredient for bakery applications, has a carbon footprint of 0.42kg CO₂e per kg. Nexture said this figure is approximately 90% below that of a typical European liquid barn egg when the product is diluted with water for application.
The group planned to evaluate about 50 products during 2026. By expanding the use of carbon-footprint information, Nexture intends to incorporate environmental impact more directly into product design, application development and customer discussions.
Nuaré provides another example of this approach. Introduced in 2025, the carob-based platform offers manufacturers an alternative to cocoa at a time when global cocoa supply chains are experiencing volatility. The solution reflects both food and drink consumer trends and food and drink industry innovation, as customers and producers seek new ingredients that can support supply security and product differentiation.
Nexture’s value-added solutions strategy is divided into three areas. Better for the Planet includes egg replacement, cocoa alternatives and solutions designed to reduce food waste. Better for You covers applications such as protein and fibre enrichment and sugar reduction. Superb Eating Experiences focuses on taste, texture and technical performance.
The company’s innovation capability is supported by 26 development centres, four innovation centres and Generate, its open innovation platform. In 2025, Generate chose three start-ups developing sustainable fats, circular protein technologies and more resilient cocoa alternatives.
These activities demonstrate how food processing technology and ingredient research can contribute to sustainability goals while also addressing commercial requirements. They also reflect wider food manufacturing trends, in which manufacturers increasingly seek formulations that deliver nutritional, sensory and environmental benefits simultaneously.
People, safety and the next stage of reporting
The People pillar addresses workforce development, employee wellbeing, diversity and occupational safety. Nexture introduced a formal Talent Management Review in 2025 to strengthen career development and succession planning. Women accounted for approximately 31% of the employees covered by the report, and the company recorded no work-related fatalities during the year.
Nexture also continued to develop CARE 2.0, a programme designed to bring quality, food safety and workplace safety under a shared framework. The initiative focuses on accountability, consistent standards and continuous improvement across the organisation.
The first Group Sustainability Report does not yet cover every company within Nexture’s current structure. Frulact and Sipral Group, which were acquired in 2026, were not included in the 2025 reporting boundary. However, Nexture referenced Frulact’s reported 2025 results as a starting point for future integration. During that year, Frulact recovered 97% of its waste and delivered more than 58,500 hours of employee training.
The report therefore marks the creation of a common baseline rather than the conclusion of Nexture’s sustainability work. The company’s next task will be to measure performance consistently as the group expands and to connect changes in sourcing, manufacturing and ingredient development with clear, verifiable results.
This challenge will also require Nexture to monitor the evolving expectations associated with food distribution trends, food and drink marketing and food and drink sustainability. Customers increasingly want evidence that sustainability claims are supported by reliable data, while regulators and business partners are placing greater emphasis on traceability, responsible sourcing and transparent reporting.
Chief executive officer Valerie Diele-Braun said the group is establishing the foundations needed to reduce its environmental footprint, improve supply-chain resilience and create ingredient solutions that contribute to a more sustainable food system.
