Table 1 Methods and data sources used in this study

Sector-level analysis

Quantitative analysis of market capitalisation

Market capitalisation is calculated by multiplying a corporation’s share price by the number of shares it has outstanding. Market capitalisation represents the monetary value of shareholder wealth stored in a corporation in the form of corporate shares.

Compustat North America (accessed via Wharton Research Data Services)

Quantitative analysis of the distribution of shareholder capital, focusing on total shareholder payouts in absolute terms, and total shareholder payouts relative to total revenue (i.e., shareholder value ratio)

The total monetary value of shareholder payouts was calculated by adding dividend payments and share buyback expenditure.

The ‘shareholder value ratio’ is calculated by dividing the total monetary value of shareholder payouts by company revenue, a proxy for the available funds that corporations can distribute among all of its different ‘stakeholders’, including workers, shareholders, governments, and suppliers [60].

Compustat North America (accessed via Wharton Research Data Services)

Targeted narrative review of the literature

To provide important historical context

Academic databases and grey literature materials

Company-level analysis

Quantitative analysis of market capitalisation

As above

Compustat North America

Quantitative analysis of total shareholder payouts

As above

Compustat North America

Quantitative analysis of shareholder payouts, capital expenditure, and income tax payments relative to total revenue

This type of analysis explores how much money the corporation in question distributes, relative to its total revenue, to some of its key ‘stakeholders’, including: shareholders via dividends and share buybacks; ordinary workers, with capital expenditure serving as a proxy for the long-term interests of the ordinary worker [60]; and governments in the form of income tax payments. For some governments, revenues from corporate income tax payments are important to increase their fiscal capacity to provide and fund essential infrastructure and services [125], including public health programs designed to address some of the harms caused by the UPF industry.

Compustat North America

Targeted narrative review of annual company reports and the broader literature

To explore potential strategies or mechanisms underpinning the findings related to how the company in question has distributed its funds, as well as to provide important historical context

Publicly accessible digitalised material accessed via Internet Archive [66, 67, 126]

Academic databases and grey literature materials

Investor-level analysis

Targeted narrative review of the literature

To explore the type and nature of shareholder campaigns taking place, and their potential influence on the governance of UPF corporations. In this paper, we focused on campaigns led or supported by so-called responsible investors and hedge fund ‘activists’.

Academic databases and grey literature materials

Descriptive analysis of the combined share ownership of selected investors in the selected ultra-processed food corporations.

To describe the proportion of shares that particular investors hold in major UPF corporations (see below for further details on company and investor selection).

Bureau van Dijk’s Orbis database (share ownership data)

Descriptive analysis of the number and percentage of times that selected investors vote for and against proposals targeting the selected corporations.

In this analysis, we focused on the voting behaviour of some of the world’s largest investors in terms of shareholdings (see below for further details on investor selection). One of the ways by which investors can influence the governance of corporations is through exercising their voting rights at annual shareholder meetings. In most cases, one share equals one vote, thus the voting decisions made by investors that hold the largest proportion of shares in a corporation will tend to have the greatest effect on overall shareholder support for a proposal.

Specifically, we disaggregated proposals that have targeted major UPF corporations into those put forward by corporate decision-makers and those put forward by shareholders that related to an environmental, social, or governance (ESG) related issue. Within those categorised as ESG-related shareholder proposals, we identified those that related to a specific public health issue, as well as those that related to political influence and lobbying, according to the information presented in their titles.

Institutional Shareholder Services’ proxy voting dashboard

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval (EDGAR) system

Descriptive analysis of the overall level of support for selected shareholder proposals

To describe overall investor support for all identified public health-related shareholder proposals.

Institutional Shareholder Services’ voting analytics for U.S. companies (accessed via Wharton Research Data Services)