Unhealthy foods at supermarkets

28/11/05 The NCC looked at over 2,000 supermarket price promotions, such as ‘buy one, get one free’ and ‘multi-buy’ offers and found the proportion of promotions for fruit and vegetables ranging from the lowest at seven per cent in Somerfield to a healthier 27 per cent in Marks & Spencer.

No supermarket hit the NCC’s target of 33 per cent – the percentage that it is recommended fruit and vegetables should make up in a balanced diet.

However, supermarkets have made significant strides in other ways, such as cutting salt, better labelling and taking sweets off the checkout. The NCC’s report, Healthy competition, sets out a league table of how each supermarket has performed.

Rating the retailers

The Co-op comes in first place in the second year of NCC’s Health Responsibility Index. It was top scorer for reducing salt content – with their sausages having less salt than our target, its excellent nutrition labelling and the best information from the customer helpline. It is the only retailer to have an explicit policy for in-store price promotions – that 25 to 30 per cent of its promotions are for healthier foods.

Marks & Spencer and Waitrose were equal second, with Sainsbury’s down to fourth place from last year’s second; Asda improved their rating from seventh to fifth with Tesco trailing at sixth; Iceland ( not rated in 2004 ) and Somerfield taking equal seventh place, with Morrisons again placed ninth.

Marks & Spencer was the best overall improver for cutting salt and led the field in having the highest proportion of fruit and vegetable price promotions.

Overall, the supermarket sector has made a valuable 22 per cent advance towards the NCC’s best practice targets.

The four leading retailers, Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons account for three-quarters of our grocery bill. Of these, Asda is the best improver, moving up two places in 2005. The store has the least salty ‘economy’ foods – such as sausages, bread and pizza. Asda also boosted its score with good customer information and advice.

Tesco – with over 30 per cent of the market – is not competitive on health; its in-store promotions are weighted towards unhealthy foods – with only 14 per cent for fruit and vegetables compared to 35 per cent for fatty and sugary foods, and its helpline was the least helpful of all.

Although the best of the big four supermarkets, Sainsbury’s disappointed by dropping to fourth place. Its rate of improvement hasn’t kept pace with competitors.

The Food Standards Agency www.food.gov.uk salt reduction strategy has led to improvements and the NCC is calling on supermarkets to commit to working with the FSA to develop targets for fat, saturated fat and sugar in processed foods.

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