Less than half of supermarket price promotions are for healthy food

Analysis conducted by Which? has revealed that the majority of supermarket offers are on less healthy foods, while 52 per cent of confectionery was on sale.
The consumer group analysed data for price promotions at Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons, Waitrose and Ocado, covering 77,165 deals.
Out of all of these, 53 per cent were on less healthy foods – products with red ‘traffic light’ labels for sugar, salt, fat or saturates – with the remaining 47 per cent of deals on healthier products.
Which? found 52 per cent of confectionery was on special offer, while only 30 per cent of fresh fruit and 34 per cent of vegetables were on offer.
Meanwhile, for soft drinks with more than 8 per cent sugar content – the higher category in the government’s sugar tax proposal – 69 per cent had a price promotion in place, while 70 per cent of pizzas were also on offer.
“Everybody has to play their part in the fight against obesity and people want supermarkets to offer more promotions on healthier foods and yet our research found the opposite,” said Alex Neill, director of campaigns and policy at Which?.
“It is time for supermarkets to shift the balance of products they include in price promotions and for all retailers to get rid of temptation at the till by taking sweets off the checkout.”
In a separate survey conducted by Which?, 29 per cent of respondents claimed they struggle to eat a healthy diet, because they believed that it was generally more expensive to buy healthier food.