1. Child labor
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Chocolate is one of Nestle's main sources of revenue. All well, but did you know that the cocoa industry is notorious for its unethical child labor and human tracking tactics? Nestle was also sued in 2010 because three Malian children were trafficked to Côte d'Ivoire and made to labor on a cocoa farm among hundreds of other exploited kids. The courts debated whether companies should be held accountable for violations of international laws and eventually ruled that they should not. It's a clown world.
2. Steals water from crisis-ridden places and sells it for astronomical prices
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Nestle can not only take water from a place experiencing a full-fledged water crisis, but they can also market it at exorbitant prices to third-world countries that lack access to safe drinking water. The company sells its Pure Life water for $2 a bottle. And while that sum may seem insignificant to Americans, in a third-world country where people live on a few cents a day, a bottle of water for $2 is too much.
3. Formula scandals since the 1970s
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Nestle also sells baby formula and hasn't stopped being sued again and again since the 1970s because of it. The company has made families reliant on their infant formula by aggressively marketing it to ignorant women, claiming that they should give their babies formula at six months and onward; otherwise, they will be anemic. Most women in third-world nations lack the education to recognize that the information Nestle promotes is inaccurate, falling prey to this trap.
4. Malevolent marketing strategies
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Nestle gives hospitals free infant formula for a week - doesn't that seem charitable? However, a closer examination of the consequences reveals that it is nothing more than a malicious marketing strategy. When a mother discontinues breastfeeding, it might take several days to a week for the breast milk to dry up and her hormones to return to normal. As a result, when the formula runs out, so does a mother's milk, and guess what: They are forced to buy more formula.
5. Their aggressive marketing of formula killed babies
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Their strategy for promoting baby formula showed that the company had no limitations when it came to exploiting actual infants. Nestle sent representatives masquerading as nurses to hospitals in underdeveloped nations in the 1970s, claiming to "assist" new mothers who were having problems breastfeeding. Still, in reality, they were sent to market the company's harmful formula. This ordeal resulted in roughly 66,000 infant deaths.
6. Creating poverty on purpose
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Nestle dominates the water industry and charges exorbitant prices for its products. This causes a huge problem for women in developing countries because the baby formula they get (from Nestle, you guessed it!) must be mixed with water. And because most people earn only a few pennies daily, they can't afford to purchase clean drinking water but are forced to mix the formula with contaminated water because they do not want their baby to die.
7. Slavery is promoted
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There's more to Nestle than you think; modern slavery is just another feat of this evil company. The world's largest food company and one of the most recognizable household names had used forced labor in its supply lines in Thailand, which means that its customers were purchasing products made with the blood of poor, unpaid, and abused migrant workers.
8. Sucking the Earth dry
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Nestle's bottled water operations, the world's largest, may be their shittiest. Literally. Since the firm began getting its Pure Life water in Pakistan, the levels have dropped hundreds of feet, and what's left for people is both dangerous and unsafe to drink. Nobody knows exactly how much they take from this source (which they've been doing sans permission since 1988), paying only $524 per year to avoid the requirement, but estimates put it at around a billion gallons per year.
9. Lies upon lies
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Nestle's bottled water pollutes the environment in many other ways. Even though it bombarded the market with ads that claimed its bottles were recycled, it admitted in 2008 that's not the truth. Following the uproar, the company has largely abandoned its North American water-bottling venture, focusing instead on international operations such as Brazil and China.
10. All the way to the seafood market
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Nestle claimed it was entering a new age of self-policing of its own supply and distribution chains by independently announcing that customers had unintentionally purchased products contaminated by the worst seafood violations. Besides actively taking part in forced labor and human trafficking in the Thai seafood industry, Nestle's Fancy Feast cat food brand also encouraged slave labor to manufacture its products. The company later claimed that no one would have been able to avoid this since Thailand is the world's third-largest seafood supplier.
11. The founder of Nestle had several failed businesses
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According to the corporate history, Nestle, the founder of the company, was 53 years old when he first launched his infant formula business in Switzerland. It was a little venture that grew into something large-scale, and it was far from his first try. Before his infant formula became the success he desired, he experimented with a variety of other goods, including cement, fertilizers, mineral water, liquefied gas, vinegar, and liqueurs.
12. Killing people with bacteria now
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Back in 2009, the FDA and CDC issued a warning for consumers to avoid ingesting any type of prepackaged Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough due to it being contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 (a food-borne bacterium that causes illness). It sickened over 50 individuals in 30 states in the United States, with half of them requiring hospitalization. Before the entire batch was regained, one woman died from a deadly infection.
13. Wastewater pollution scandals on repeat
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Nestle, like any "respectable" multinational corporation, has been implicated in a number of pollution-related issues. The company, like Kraft and Shell, committed multiple environmental infractions. Nestle Sources Shanghai Ltd's bottled water manufacturing factory was one of the plants that began operations before their wastewater treatment facilities passed the environmental impact assessment.
14. Instant coffee was created by Nestle
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Nestle's largest division is Nescafe, and it's now worth roughly $17 billion. The company's chemists worked for four years to develop a way of converting coffee into a fine powder that could be rehydrated. Nescafe was introduced in Switzerland in 1938 and was available in 29 other countries by 1940.
15. They work with dictators
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You'd think openly supporting and conspiring with tyrants would be a Kit Kat too far for even the most terrible company to exist, but in 2009, it was revealed that Nestle was purchasing 15% of its milk from a farm run by the wife of Robert Mugabe, then-president of Zimbabwe and well-known evil man. The Mugabe administration had unjustly acquired the farm as Zimbabwe's economy crumbled after the pair purchased their 34th castle. But hey, people need their Nesquik!
16. Activists are fighting Nestle
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Many groups of activists are fighting the company on its practices. Greenpeace Philippines, Health Care Without Harm, Mother Earth Foundation, EcoWaste Coalition, and Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (all under the Break Free From Plastic movement) are among the groups calling for Nestle to transition to truly sustainable packaging solutions and stop producing single-use plastics.
17. Bribing doctors and nurses
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Nestle was also investigated for persuading doctors to prescribe its merchandise for babies, including newborn milk powder, to parents. The complaint concerns an event held in October last year by the Switzerland-based Nestle Nutrition Institute, a research organization linked with the company, which was an industry-sponsored gathering intended to sway doctors into recommending Nestle baby food.
18. Plastic pollution
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Nestle is one of the main contributors to the current plastic crisis and ecological problem. Greenpeace has summoned Nestle for not doing enough to eliminate single-use plastics that pollute landfills and the oceans. Nestle's head of sustainability, Duncan Pollard, stated that the business agreed on the need to limit plastic use; however, the company later said that wouldn't happen if they feel like consumers won't like their new packages.
19. Propaganda is in order
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In Belarus, for example, one out of every three advertisements on state television promotes a Nestle product. This isn't your typical propaganda - this is a Nestle-sponsored network where political dissidents are constantly pushed into forced confessions on the air.
20. Illegal disposal of waste products
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Not only are Nestle's plastic bottles bad for the environment, but the waste produced in the company's factories is wreaking havoc on the environment and marine life. In 2020, a Nestle milk powder mill in France discharged biological waste into neighboring water bodies, killing approximately three metric tons of fish. Even after making numerous grandiose promises and claims about minimizing plastic waste and use, the company's proportion of reusable, recyclable plastic has climbed by only 1%.
21. Nestle owns more than you think
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Sure, you know Nestle is behind brands like Nescafe and Nesquik; the names alone tell you that. But for other brand names, well, it's not readily apparent that the company owns them. For instance, Nestle makes everything from Gerber and Cheerios for your newborn to Toll House and Hot Pockets for your teen. They also produce Lean Cuisine, Haagen-Dazs, Stouffers, and DiGiorno. They have a sizable pet food division as well, with brands such as Purina, Friskies, Fancy Feast, and more under their umbrella. Their bottled water brands include Pellegrino, Pure Life, Poland Spring, S, Vittel, and Perrier.
22. Palm oil-ridden products
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If you pay attention to "trivial" things like mass species extinction, deforestation and basically care about the future of this planet in any way, you know that palm oil is an incredibly harmful product in food and other products. However, Nestle is using unsustainable palm oil sources in almost every item they have despite knowing it is one of the worst industries in the world right now... just to save a few dollars. Not to lower the prices of their items for their clients but to stuff their own pockets.
23. Cruel animal testing
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Nestle's animal testing experiments policies are horribly out of date. Especially now, when it's known with 100% certainty that "spraying 'X' into someone's eyes" will have harmful unintended consequences, they are actually just continuing to do it to minimize expenses for new products to be approved quickly without having to cover the costs of qualified third-party industry professionals who can verify everything they need to have their new product lines authorized for the market.
24. Poisonous pet food
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Pet owners throughout the country were shocked in 2014 when one of the top pet food enterprises, Purina and their Beneful brand, came under assault. For example, Frank Lucido's German shepherd died abruptly after being admitted to the vet with poisoning symptoms. It wasn't just his dogs, Lucido discovered - there were hundreds of testimonials on Consumer Affairs claiming the same thing was happening over and over again. Ultimately, the death toll was in the thousands.
25. Nestle claimed $6M from famine-hit Ethiopia
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Nestle demanded a $6 million payment from Ethiopia's government, which is among the world's poorest countries, as the state faced its worst famine in over 20 years. The funds were meant to compensate an Ethiopian enterprise that was nationalized by the previous military administration in 1975. Cash-strapped Ethiopia has offered $1.5 million to settle the complaint, which purchased the firm's German parent company in 1986, stood firm, claiming it was a "matter of principle."
26. No unions and no bargaining rights for workers
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Unions encompassing more than 1,200 workers at Nestle India's factories in Ponda, Moga, and Bicholim signed agreements for collective bargaining on wages and benefits for the first time in 2009 after a long struggle for their constitutional right to wage bargaining. This accomplishment was even more impressive in light of Nestle management's refusal to acknowledge the union at Nestle Ponda, Goa, when it was created in 2001, leading to a legal case that management purposefully protracted for eight years, requesting 54 adjournments.
27. Milk chocolate, a Nestle creation
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Milk chocolate is a relatively new invention, with the seeds of the concept established in the mid-1800s. Per the company's history ledger, Nestle happened to have a neighbor named Daniel Peter. Peter's family were candlemakers, but when he spotted an opportunity in the growing chocolate sector, he decided that was the path he wanted to take. When he saw how Nestle combined milk and wheat for formula, he wondered if he could do the same thing with milk and chocolate. And voila!
28. Two children died in 2022
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Nestle has managed to kill yet through another approach: a deadly E. coli incident in 2022. Dozens of French children became ill after eating poisoned Nestle food, and two died as a result. The Paris prosecutor's office launched an investigation into possible involuntary manslaughter in April, and five days later, health officials ordered the Caudry facility to cease manufacturing. The company had allegedly reached a settlement with most of the claimants.
29. High sugar content marketed as a healthy breakfast
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Nestle was the target of yet another complaint, which was over Nesquik and its packaging, which touted it as an excellent beginning to the day. What was the issue? The shockingly high sugar content. Nestle was ordered to delete the ad after determining that the claim and the child-friendly design and cheerful bunny created a false sense that it was a healthy complement to a daily breakfast. After all, one 8-ounce serving had 20.3 grams of sugar, which is far from the definition of healthy.
30. Nestle bought your favorite care brands
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Even if you avoid all of those household goods, foods, and pet treats, there's still a pretty decent chance you have some Nestle items on your shelves. Why? Because the company is also a major shareholder in L'Oreal, which owns Maybelline, YvesSaintLaurent, Garnier, Essie, Urban Decay, Biotherm, Ralph Lauren Fragrances, and Lancome. You just can't seem to escape this company's continuously grabbing hands!