Study: UK Supermarkets Over-Promoting Sugary Products in Price Promotions

The study found a significant bias in special offers towards items with high sugar content, with special offers 20 per cent more likely to have red traffic light levels of sugar (i.e. over 12.5g per 100g for food and over 6.3g for drinks per 100ml) compared to non-offers.

23 Nov 2012 --- Supermarkets in the UK have been over-promoting sugary products in price promotions according to research by an academic from the University of East Anglia (UEA).

Prof Paul Dobson led a three-year project that focused on consumer behaviour towards food and its impact on overeating and food waste. The study examined the role of food retailers and whether the pricing techniques they use contribute to the excessive consumption of unhealthy food that causes obesity and overbuying, for example through multi-buy offers such as ‘buy one get one free’ (BOGOF), ‘three for the price of two’, and price discounts.

It follows a number of initiatives announced recently by supermarkets as part of the UK government’s Public Health Responsibility Deal, an on-going scheme to get the food industry involved in promoting healthy eating. Examples included improving accessibility to fruit and vegetables and replacing confectionery at till displays with more nutritious foods.

Prof Dobson’s study, The Impact of Retail Pricing on Overeating and Food Waste, was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Special offers are worth more than £50bn in sales to supermarkets and account for over a third of all consumer spending. The research analysed supermarket price promotions and whether these are biased in favour of food products high in fat, sugar and/or salt.

Prof Dobson, head of Norwich Business School at UEA, said "I welcome the government's Responsibility Deal and the pledges that supermarkets have so far made to promote healthy eating, but what is required is a comprehensive move away from price promoting unhealthy foods rather than token gestures used for marketing spin.

“It is simply irresponsible for supermarkets to overly promote foods with high sugar and fat content. The food industry must play a much greater role in promoting healthy diets. Food producers can do more by reducing the fat, sugar and salt content of processed foods, while food retailers can ensure that healthy and nutritious choices are available and affordable to all consumers and that they practice responsible marketing. Responsibility lies with both retailers and producers, otherwise regulation might be needed.”

The research team, which also included Prof Eitan Gerstner of Technion (Israel Institute of Technology) and Dr Jonathan Seaton at Loughborough University, analysed weekly price and nutrition data of a range of food and drink products sold over a year by four UK supermarkets - Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Ocado.

Of the 1.3m item prices examined with nutrition information from August 2010 to August 2011, just over 20 per cent of these prices were marked as special offers.

The study found a significant bias in special offers towards items with high sugar content, with special offers 20 per cent more likely to have red traffic light levels of sugar (i.e. over 12.5g per 100g for food and over 6.3g for drinks per 100ml) compared to non-offers.

Single item offers, with straight discounts, tended to be concentrated on more unhealthy products than multi-buy offers, especially in respect of fat levels, with single offers almost 50 per cent more likely to have red traffic light levels of fat (i.e. over 20g per 100g) and saturated fat (i.e. over 5g per 100g).

Eye-catching deep discount offers had a tendency to be focused on unhealthy products high in fat, sugar and salt. For example, BOGOF (‘2 for 1’) offers were found to be more than twice as likely to have ‘red traffic light’ levels of fat and over 40 per cent more likely to have red traffic light levels of saturated fat and sugar than items as a whole. However, multi-buys were on average more biased towards healthier items.

Over the year Tesco had the highest recorded percentage of items on promotion with 28 per cent, followed by Asda (24), Sainsbury (19) and Ocado (10). ‘Two for …’ multi-buy offers were the most widely used form of promotion, making up around half of all the special offers.

Prof Dobson, professor of business strategy and public policy, added: “While price promotions can offer savings for consumers they may not be so good for our waistlines and health. With almost a quarter of the population classed as obese, overeating and food waste are serious concerns for modern society.

“There is a healthy choice of supermarket offers available but shoppers need to check carefully what they buy. Hunt for bargains but check ingredients and fill baskets for a balanced diet, and buy only what is needed. This particularly applies for very prominent offers, which can appear very tempting.”