Most of us simply go to the grocery store, purchase what they need, and leave, without even thinking about the origin or the history of the brand they choose.

However, we are living in a time when not investigating the foods we consume is similar to neglecting our health.

If you do research, you might be surprised to find out that some of the products you regularly buy are actually produced by some of the most notorious companies nowadays!

For example, did you know that Tropicana is actually owned by PepsiCo?  Did you know that Hot Pockets and L’Oreal share a parent company in Nestlé?

Junk food lovers would be shocked to learn such information from the infographic created by Oxfam several years ago, which revealed that a ginormous number of brands are controlled by just 10 multinationals.

The infographic shows the way companies, including Nestlé, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Unilever, Danone, General Mills, Kellogg’s, Mars, Associated British Foods, and Mondelez, are interconnected.

These are the ten major companies that own virtually all other brands:

1. Mondelez (Oreo, Wheat Thins, Nilla)
2. Nestle (Caro, DiGiorno, Stouffers)
3. Coca-Cola (Nos, Fuze, Dasani, Minute Maid)
4. Unilever (I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!, Blue Band, Stork)
5. PepsiCo (Quaker, Tropicana, Cheetos, Brisk)
6. General Mills (Hamburger Helper, Yoplait, Green Giant, Betty Crocker)
7. Kellogg’s (Keebler, Gripz, Pringles)
8. Associated British Foods (Karo, Mazola, Ovaltine)
9. Danone (Evian, Activia)
10. MARS (Uncle Bens, Life Savers, Starburst, Altoids)

This is quite interesting to find out, isn’t it? The same company behind so many different names!

Did you know any of this?

These companies employ thousands of people, and every year, they make billions of dollars in revenue.

The goal of OXFAM is to convince these giant companies to do business responsibly, as countless people depend on their global operations.

 Alexander E.M. Hess wrote:

“These corporations are so powerful that their policies can have a major impact on the diets and working conditions of people worldwide, as well as on the environment.” 

Oxfam’s campaign investigates the policies of the “big 10” food companies, encourages them to do more for the Earth and the people, and if needed, even uses the power of consumer action to convince them to do better.

Oxfam’s Chris Jochnick explained: 

“What we did is we took certain issues … [and] we saw the kind of impacts they had on the ground. We released reports about those issues and those impacts and how they’re tied to the 10 largest food and beverage companies. And then we pushed the companies to begin to address them.”

Additionally, as the infographic only covers branded foods, you should know that several companies have control over the fruits, vegetables, and meat we buy at the grocery stores as well.

Plus, the consumer goods industry is not the only one consolidated in this way, as 90% of the media are owned by several companies only, and numerous banks have also merged in the last few decades.

It turns out we are living in a kind of dystopian society where corporations control everything, but they are good at hiding it!

The video below breaks down the infographic for a more detailed explanation:

Sources:
www.businessinsider.com
www.huffpost.com
www.oxfamamerica.org