How Ethical Is Nestlé SA? | Ethical Consumer

How ethical is Nestle?

Our research highlights several ethical issues with Nestlé, including boycott calls, workers' rights and being one of the world's biggest plastic polluters for years.

Below we outline some of these issues. To see the full detailed stories, and Nestlé's overall ethical rating, please sign in or subscribe.

Boycott calls for Nestlé

Nestlé is the target of several boycotts.

Since 1988 Nestlé has been the target of a boycott call by Baby Milk Action. The organisation says Nestlé contributes to the unnecessary death and suffering of infants around the world by aggressively marketing baby foods in breach of international marketing standards. Nestlé’s own report found 125 instances of non-compliance with its baby milk marketing policy in 2023. This number has remained steady over the years (for example, 107 in 2019, 116 in 2021) in spite of Nestlé claiming that it takes “firm, swift action for all confirmed instances of non-compliance.”

Medical journal The Lancet published a three-paper series in 2023, in which experts called for clampdowns on exploitative formula milk marketing. The authors pointed out that while companies - of which Nestlé was the largest - competed for market share, they also cooperated to avoid regulation and to lobby governments through trade organisations and business interest groups.

Nestlé has also received widespread criticism for its approach to sourcing its bottled water. It faces boycotts from indigenous rights organisation Lakota People’s Law Project for extracting water from watersheds that have seen droughts in recent years.

Nestlé also extracted millions of gallons of water from a California creek network for a US water brand. Although Nestlé claimed that it had rights to extract water, a 2017 investigation found that the company extracted 58m gallons (about 220 million litres), instead of the 2.3m gallons (8.7million litres) to which it was entitled. In 2021, Californian officials drafted a cease-and-desist order to stop Nestlé from syphoning out its drinking water. In the same year Nestlé sold many of its water bottling business, including the one exploiting the California creek network to Blue Triton.

Conflicts between US communities and Nestlé over water extraction have also occurred in Maine, Michigan and Florida. The company’s US water operations are awash with court cases and lobbying. Nestlé has gradually sold off its water extracting business to Blue Triton and in 2025 Nestlé Waters North America became BlueTriton Brands.

L'Oreal - which is partly owned by Nestlé - has also been the target of a boycott call by Naturewatch, which accused the company of ongoing testing on rabbits, mice and guinea pigs. Despite several approaches by Naturewatch, L’Oréal has refused to meet the organisation.

Nestlé is one of the world's biggest polluters

Nestlé has received criticism for its failure to specifically target methane emissions (including reporting them separately) and for its overall lack of transparency over its reduction of greenhouse gases. According to the Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor 2023, Nestlé’s emissions were highly unlikely to align with UN guidance on net-zero commitments and its plan would only deliver 16-21% reductions by 2030.

In 2023, Nestlé was named one of the top three plastic polluters in the world for the fifth year running. A global survey by the campaign group Break Free From Plastic named it the world’s second largest plastic polluter, and stated that Nestlé would continue to be one of the worst polluters for years to come unless it radically changed its policies.

In 2024, Nestlé was criticised by the Rainforest Action Network for stating deforestation-free commitments without accounting for palm oil-based animal feed, especially for dairy cows. The environmental and human rights organisation said: “Palm oil-based animal feed is now the largest palm oil import into the US.”

Criticisms of Nestlé on workers' rights

Nestlé has received criticism for its approach to workers' rights in various sectors.

In 2025, trade unions GMB and Unite members employed by Nestlé in Britain called on the company to address allegations of anti-union practices and labour rights violations in Colombia. The GMB and Unite letter detailed issues such as: alleged targeting of sick or injured workers for dismissal; intimidation; and the unfair dismissal of 90 workers from its Florencia plant in 2023; and the dismissal of another 12 from its Bugala grande plant in January 2025.

Nestlé has long faced accusations of labour rights abuses at its operations in Colombia, while trade unionists employed at the company have faced violence. At least 12 unionised Nestlé employees have been killed since 1985. Nestlé hasn’t appeared to have responded to the trade unions’ letter.

A report from the non-profit corporate watchdog Corporate Accountability Lab detailed how “companies are extracting the West African cocoa sector to death”. The report stated that cocoa farmers often earned far less than the World Bank’s poverty threshold ($2.15 per day in 2022), while Nestlé’s revenue had increased by 8.4 percent to more than $108 billion. According to the report, it would have cost Nestlé approximately $787 million – 0.72 percent of its earnings – for the company to have paid a living income for the 430,000 metric tons of cocoa it purchased from Ivorian and Ghanaian farmers.

Nestlé’s palm oil supplier Brasil Biofuels (BBF) was accused by campaign group Global Witness of waging violent campaigns to silence Indigenous and traditional communities defending their ancestral lands. Another supplier, Agropalma has been linked to fraudulent land grabs and stranding or evicting communities.

Nestlé and animal welfare

Nestlé uses various animal derived ingredients, including milk, eggs and meat, yet has no adequate animal welfare policies. Although the company has committed to some welfare improvement measures, Ethical Consumer doesn’t consider these to be adequate.

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This profile text was written in autumn/winter 2025. Most of the research was conducted in autumn 2025.