Unhealthy Promotions on the Rise During UK Credit Crunch – Report

Fatty and sugary food products now make up over half (54 per cent) of in-store supermarket promotions. This is despite health advice indicating that these foods should make up just seven per cent of our diets.

01/09/08 Major UK supermarket chains have all dramatically increased the number of in-store promotions featuring cheap sugary and fatty foods - indicating the lengths they will go to attract customers during the credit crunch, the National Consumer Council (NCC) has revealed in a new report.

Fatty and sugary food products now make up over half (54 per cent) of in-store supermarket promotions, nearly double the number recorded in the last survey in 2006. This is despite health advice indicating that these foods should make up just seven per cent of our diets. Morrisons are the worst offenders with a whopping 63 per cent of their promotions featuring sugary and fatty foods, a significant rise since 2006. Only one in eight of retailers’ promotions featured fruit and vegetables, a long way from 33 per cent - the minimum recommended level that these food groups should make up of our total diet (1). Only M&S came close, with a quarter of their promotions being for fruit and vegetables.

The figures have been published in Cut-price, what cost?, the fourth in a series of reports rating the UK’s top eight supermarkets on how they help their customers eat more healthily.

Overall, Sainsbury’s comes top for the second time in a row, making good progress in labelling and nutrition, and scoring highly on customer information. The Co-op comes a close second, with a big improvement on its 2006 score. Tesco, the supermarket with far and away the biggest market share, comes in at a disappointing joint fifth place - falling down on labelling and the nutrition content of their own-label products. Morrisons comes last for the fourth time in a row.

‘The volume of in-house promotions for fatty and sugary foods the supermarkets are all offering is staggering. We expected to see evidence of big improvements since our last investigation, but we’ve been sadly disappointed,’ said Lucy Yates, the report’s author.

‘With so many of us buying our food in these supermarkets, their collective behaviour can heavily influence the nation’s eating habits. Despite their claims, the supermarkets all still have a long way to go to help customers choose and enjoy a healthier diet.’

The report rated supermarkets based on the salt content of supermarkets’ own-brand foods, front and back-of-pack nutrition labelling, price promotions, prevalence of sweets at the checkout, and the information and advice the supermarkets make available.

The Co-op, Tesco and Waitrose all scored ten out of ten for not having sweets at the checkout. In stark contrast, M&S scored zero for displaying a wide range of sweets and snacks at checkouts – many at child height. Although they report trials to remove sweets, and an intention to remove confectionery by January next year, we call on them to follow best practice and go sweet-free more quickly.

All retailers made improvements in the salt content of their standard products since 2006 with Asda, the Co-op and Sainsbury’s close to meeting the targets set by the Food Standards Agency (FSA).

The NCC is calling on all the major retailers to ensure that: at least 33 per cent of price promotions are for fruit and vegetables, and that they run fewer multi-buy promotions on fatty and sugary foods; they remove all unhealthy snacks and sweets from checkouts; they move faster in reducing salt, fat, saturated fat and sugar in own-brand products; and that they roll out front-of-pack traffic light labelling to help shoppers improve the balance of their diets.