Indicator 7.4
Issue: Nutrition and healthy eating
Indicator: Extent to which sales support dietary guidelines
Why is this issue important?
The NHS Plan notes that while educating consumers about how to make healthy food choices is key step to improving diet, “the food choices people can make are shaped by the availability and affordability of food locally”. It calls upon stakeholders, including retailers, to work to improve the overall balance of diet. As important agents in shaping food choice, retailers have unique power to support the government’s efforts to increase fruit and vegetable consumption, and reduce fat, sugar and salt consumption.
What should retailers do about this issue?
Retailers have risen imaginatively to the challenge of supplying product ranges that support dietary guidelines — low fat, high-fibre etc. They should now be prepared to underpin this commitment to healthy eating with pricing and promotion policies that incentivise the selection of healthy foods, including fresh fruit and vegetables, even where this involves promoting simple foods rather than those with high "added value".
