Just weeks after the government announced that plans to introduce a ban on multi-buy deals for HFSS food & drink were being suspended for another two years, new data shows that one-third of such promotions are on unhealthy food, with only 3% on staple carbs and 3.8% on fruit and veg.
The research by the Food Foundation comes as it publishes its latest round of national food insecurity data, which shows 17% of households are struggling to put food on the table. The Charity argues that the foods families really need during the cost of living crisis are not subject to multi-buys discounts – instead 29% of are on high fat, salt and sugar products (HFSS).
The Food Foundation’s Kids Food Guarantee found that only a small percentage of the deals apply to staple ingredients or essential items for feeding families. It notes that the higher price of healthier calories relative to less healthy calories means it is already more challenging for people struggling with the cost of living to afford a healthy diet, especially those from low-income groups. And the current distribution of multi-buys does not help with the affordability of basic staple foods such as fruit and vegetables.
Much like advertising spend in the UK, where a third (33%) of food and soft drink advertising spend goes towards confectionery, snacks, desserts and soft drinks compared to just 1% for fruit and vegetables, the analysis suggests that action needs to be taken to rebalance marketing and promotional spend to ensure that healthy foods like fruit and veg are better promoted to customers.
In the non-HFSS category, a wide range of foods are available on multi-buy deals, including marinades, sauces, spices and herbs, kitchen ingredients and composite foods such as ready meals, but only small proportion on healthier essentials such as fruit and veg.
Analysis found that Sainsbury’s and Aldi run price reduction promotions but do not offer volume promotions or multibuys on food. Volume promotions or multi-buy deals were found at three retailers: Asada, Morrisons and Tesco.
Of these three retailers, the study showed that Tesco offered the smallest proportion of HFSS items on promotion. 6.2% of Tesco’s offers were on HFSS products, just under half the amount that offered by Morrisons and Asda.
However, Morrisons offered the highest proportion of offers on staple carbohydrates (2.3%) and on non-HFSS foods.
The Food Foundation stated that its data highlights that offering promotions could be a useful tool for supporting consumers to stretch their food budget further when promotions are on essential items.
But it noted that unless such promotions are structured so that they help people to afford healthier staple foods – rather than discretionary foods high in salt, sugar and fat – multi-buy offers will only further obstruct the shift towards making healthier diets the easier, more affordable option.
The Food Foundation’s Kids Food Guarantee is calling for the following changes:
- Where multibuy deals are offered, retailers and manufacturers ought to place deals on staple carbohydrates and healthy essentials like fruit and vegetables, milk and eggs rather than on less healthy, HFSS foods.
- Other retailers ought to follow Sainsbury’s responsible business leadership in committing to ban promotions on HFSS foods despite the government rolling back the planned implementation of this policy to October 2025. Where commitments have been made to phase out HFSS promotions, as in the case of Tesco, commitments ought to be swiftly implemented.
- Government to reconsider their delay of the planned ban on HFSS promotions. It will not be possible for the government to meet their goal of halving childhood obesity by 2030 unless urgent action is taken to rebalance the food environment.
Anna Taylor, Executive Director of The Food Foundation, commented: “Levels of food insecurity remain worryingly high, with 17% of households experiencing food insecurity in June 2023.
“This is over twice as high as levels in January 2022. With food price inflation falling only very slowly, we need both government and retailers to urgently step up and support households through the cost of living crisis.
“That support needs to make sure that families are able to access and afford healthy staples such as fruit and veg. Running promotional deals on junk food simply makes it even harder for many to access and afford nutritious food.”
NAM Implications:
- Staple carbs and fruit & veg are generally own-label or unbranded (own-label by implication…)
- Whereas the unhealthy products tend to be branded (heavily?)
- Perhaps the target of these ‘health foods’ initiatives needs repositioning?
