Whether it’s living longer lives, enjoying better quality of life, or lowering healthcare costs, Improving world nutrition benefits everyone.

In Europe and the United States, lack of a proper diet and good nutrition has contributed to a growing obesity epidemic. In the United States alone, it is estimated that more than 72 million Americans are obese and one out of three of these individuals are children. Obesity can result in heart disease, type two diabetes, sleep apnea, cancer, and osteoarthritis all of which undermine quality of life.

These factors also reduce life expectancy. Each year, obesity-related conditions are thought to cause more than 100,000 deaths in the United States and nearly 400,000 in Europe. These statistics are tragic, especially given that medical experts agree obesity is the leading preventable cause of death.

To help reverse this trend we must do something different. Part of the solution that doctors, dieticians and physical trainers recommend is for consumers to eat more nutritious diets. This means eating foods that are rich in nutrients, lower in calories and with fewer preservatives—this includes more fruits and vegetables. It isn’t that we do not have enough food, it’s that we are not eating enough of the right foods.

Chiquita’s mission is to help the world’s consumers broaden mindsets about nutrition and bring healthy, nutritious and convenient foods that taste great and improve people’s lives. The nutritional aspects of our products allow us to focus on making them more readily available and convenient to consumers rather than reformulating them to reduce fat, sodium, sugar or preservatives, which has been the focus of other consumer product companies.

Our product innovation and development is focused on the selection of varieties of fruits and vegetables that provide the most nutrition possible, while maintaining our speed to market, great taste and freshness. The average consumer doesn’t often realize the vast amount of nutrients packed into a single banana, an apple slice or a plate of leafy greens. Chiquita and Fresh Express products make it easy for consumers to enjoy these health and wellness benefits in their daily lives.

Part of this commitment is ensuring consumers have access to the information they need to make healthy choices. In 2011 Chiquita became a strategic partner with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to promote the new MyPlate dietary guidelines. The MyPlate guidelines replace the Food Pyramid and make it easier for consumers to maintain a balanced, nutritious diet.

As a MyPlate partner, Chiquita will work with the USDA to promote nutrition messaging based upon the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and a joint nutrition promotion strategy within our industry.

Chiquita is also working to fight childhood obesity. Since the beginning of 2010, we’ve been working to help students eat healthier at school. Chiquita is proud to have been the first produce company to commit financial and operational to support United Fresh’s Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools campaign. This campaign is an industry effort to donate salad bar equipment to schools in need so children there may have access to fresh fruits and vegetables each day. We are now helping thousands of kids eat healthier each day with the salad bars we have donated.

We’ve done these things because it’s the right thing to do. Taste is not the only thing we care about. Our products and our efforts make a positive impact in our society - winning the hearts and smiles of our consumers.

We will continue to do more going forward to Improve World Nutrition because taste isn’t the only thing we care about.