Bad deal: Some UK lunchtime Meal Deals contain four days’ worth of sugar, lobby group says

31 Oct 2017 --- A new survey of Meal Deals by UK lobby group Action on Sugar, based at Queen Mary University of London, has revealed that certain food and drink combinations contain 30 teaspoons of sugar – more than four times an adult’s daily maximum intake of “free” sugars (30g) – in a single lunch. The findings have been launched to coincide with the organization’s Sugar Awareness Week, which runs this year from 30 October 30 to 5 November.

The sugar and health lobby group is now calling for supermarkets and retailers to take responsibility for the amounts of sugar they’re selling to consumers by excluding all “high-sugar” drinks and confectionery (i.e., those that would have a “red” traffic light label according to the UK Department of Health’s high-sugar warning) sold as part of their popular meal deals.

“We are increasingly interested in looking at the level of sugar promoted through price promotions in supermarkets and therefore decided to start with meal deals as an example of how much sugar can be consumed by eating them,” Ms. Kawther Hashem, Researcher at Action on Sugar, tells NutritionInsight.

Failing to promote healthy choices
From the meal deals surveyed, Action on Sugar notes that the combination containing the highest amount of sugar is from retailer WHSmith. The Meal Deal includes a sandwich plus the option of a Mountain Dew Citrus Blast 500ml drink and a bag of Skittles Crazy Sours, which together contain 30 teaspoons of sugar – “equivalent to the amount of sugar in 79 chocolate fingers.”

The organization reports that if someone were to consume this Meal Deal every day over a working week, this would equate to 150 teaspoons of sugar (595g).

While the findings reveal that low sugar meal deal options are available with some combinations containing less than one teaspoon of sugar, the majority of retailers are failing to promote healthy choices to their consumers, according to Action on Sugar.

A huge 72 percent of meal deal drinks sold at Morrisons are high (red) in sugar per drink compared to 38 percent at retailer M&S, which offers the lowest percentage of high sugar drinks. Some drinks alone contain up to 70g of sugar and are frequently offered in 500ml portions, which equates to two servings, despite being sold as part of a lunch meal. In addition, WHSmith does not provide healthy snack options like fresh fruit as part of its meal deals.

“The choices of fruit and vegetables as snacks within meal deal promotions are either non-existent or really poor,” Hashem tells NutritionInsight. “A small bag of sliced apples or carrots is not as appealing as the many high fat, salt and sugar snacks options available. The retailers can really up their game here.”

“We would also like to see the majority of drinks available on meal deal promotions to be low in sugar and include no added sugar drinks or small portions of fruit juice,” Hashem adds.

As well as excluding high-sugar drinks, chocolate and sweets from meal deals, if retailers really want to encourage customers to make healthy choices, Action on Sugar points out that they should also consider not offering any other high (red) sugar products along with those high in salt and saturated fat as part of meal deals.

“These excessively high-sugar combos can have a detrimental effect on people’s health, particularly if eaten daily,” Hashem explains. “It is staggering that by just making simple swaps at lunchtime, you can reduce your sugar intake by a massive 29 teaspoons of sugar.”

Jenny Rosborough, Campaign Manager at Action on Sugar, says: “It is time the government ensured that price promotions, including meal deals, only include healthier options. This year’s Sugar Awareness Week highlights just how much sugar is included in price promotion, which has been proven to make people buy more.”

Action on Sugar UK offers consumers the following tips for choosing healthier meal deals: 

• Choose products with front-of-pack traffic light colors – pick products that are amber or green for sugar, salt and saturated fat.
• Choose fruit or vegetables for the snack option.
• Choose water, sugar-free drinks or smaller portions of fruit juice or smoothie for the drink option.

By Paul Creasy