Supermarkets have been slowly increasing sales of healthy food for years, but now the stakes have risen, with the prospect of fines if they don’t do better.

As reported by The Grocer on Sunday, the proposals are part of health secretary Wes Streeting’s 10-year Health Plan, due to be officially released next week.

It is set to give supermarkets what many have recently asked for, by legally requiring all large food businesses to report on their sales of healthier food and drink. The plan also goes further, setting out clear improvement targets, with fines for supermarkets who consistently fail to meet them.

The proposals outline ways supermarkets can nudge shoppers into making healthier choices, such as offering discounts on healthy foods, or changing loyalty schemes to promote more nutritious products over heavily processed or calorific options.

Other suggestions include reformulating own-label lines and tweaking recipes to create healthier options, as well as changing store layouts and in-store promotions to steer shoppers towards choosing more nutritious products.

But a lot of this is not new -– so how have supermarkets already been working to nudge healthier choices in recent years?

Tesco

It was Tesco’s CEO Ken Murphy that led the industry calling for mandatory reporting of healthier food sales in May, as revealed by The Grocer at the time.

The retailer says it has moved fresh produce to the front of stores in a number of branches, and is making ‘Better Basket zones’ a permanent feature in large supermarkets.

Launched as a trial in 2022, the Better Basket zones signpost foods high in fibre, plant-based options, low & no-alcohol, and snacks under 100 calories, with the aim of making them stand out on shelf. The signage has been rolled out across larger stores, and Tesco has shared weekly healthier recipes with nine million customers in Better Baskets emails.

Meanwhile the supermarket’s Clubcard Prices for loyalty scheme members include a Fresh 5 offer, where five fruit and veg options are offered at a discount.

Fruit & veg lines are also among the hundreds of products in its Aldi Price Match scheme, and Tesco has committed to ensuring a healthier version of a product will cost no more than the standard variant wherever possible, it says.

“All food businesses have a critical part to play in providing good-quality, affordable and healthy food,” says Murphy.

“At Tesco, we have measured and published our own healthier food sales for a number of years now – we believe it is key to more evidence-led policy and better-targeted health interventions.

“That’s why we have called for mandatory reporting for all supermarkets and major food businesses and why we welcome the government’s announcement on this. We look forward to working with them on the detail of the Healthy Food Standard and its implementation by all relevant food businesses.”

The supermarket is aiming for healthy products to account for 65% of volume sales by December 2025 in the UK and ROI, up from 58% in 2021/22. At 64%, it is nearly there.

Sainsbury’s

Sainsbury’s has also been an advocate for mandatory reporting of healthier food sales, having urged delegates at the Labour Party conference in 2023 to take a regulatory approach.

At the start of 2025, Sainsbury’s launched a Healthy Choice logo to help customers more easily spot healthier options in its own-brand ranges, based on government guidance.

It says it is also continuing to expand healthier ranges, including products like its new Sainsbury’s Kids Plain Yogurt, a lunchbox-friendly option fortified with vitamin D.

Like Tesco, it also points to its Aldi Price Match scheme, and says 75% of its matches are consistently healthy or better-for-you products.

“We’re proud to have led the way on healthier choices for many years – from introducing traffic light labelling in 2005 and including healthy foods in our Aldi Price Match, to most recently launching our Healthy Choice logo to make it easier for customers to make informed choices about the products they choose to buy in our own-brand ranges.

“We continue to support the introduction of mandatory health reporting by the whole food sector, as we have been doing for many years now, and continue to work with government and industry partners to help make healthier, sustainable diets accessible for everyone.”

Asda

Asda joined Sainsbury’s in arguing for mandatory reporting at the Labour Party conference in 2023, shortly after it had struck a partnership with Nesta – the charity that developed the targets system due to be adopted by the government. The partnership involves Asda and Nesta testing measures to nudge shoppers toward healthier choices before rolling them out.

In May this year, Asda introduced healthier choices in snacking aisles, with products that are high in fibre and below 100 calories, in 10 nudge trial stores.

Other changes included trials of promotional activity – namely Rollback. Asda said it was testing how these could positively impact healthier sales across snacking, frozen and fresh produce.

Last year Asda also called on suppliers to help it tackle obesity by improving the average health score of its sales year on year, based on the government’s nutrient profiling model.

“At Asda we recognise our responsibility to provide healthy and sustainable choices to our customers,” says Asda executive chairman Allan Leighton. “We are supportive of prevention and our role in delivering it. We – the supermarkets – are part of the solution, not the problem.

“That’s why, in early 2024 Asda relaunched our health strategy, marking a new chapter in our long history of action on health, including being the first retailer to introduce front of pack traffic light labelling and the establishment of our Live Better icon, which signposts customers to the healthiest options.

“The UK is one of the most competitive, high-quality environments for food retail. Engaging us collectively and genuinely to meet the challenge of rising obesity would harness that expertise to deliver tangible and lasting outcomes for consumers.

“Any outputs need to sit as part of an holistic food strategy, looking at our food environment end-to-end and consider the cumulative regulatory burden and costs supermarkets are already bearing to deliver other aspects of the Government’s policy agenda.”

Aldi

Aldi uses a ‘5 a day’ logo on all products containing one or more portions of fruit or vegetables, to help consumers make healthy choices, while its Super 6 weekly fruit veg offers are at the front of all its stores.

The discounter has a nationwide programme to teach children aged five to 14 about eating healthily, dubbed ‘Get Set to Eat Fresh’, and run in partnership with Team GB and ParalympicsGB.

On reformulation, Aldi says 83% of its own-label Aldi products were compliant with Public Health England targets by 2024, and it’s working towards 100%.

“From our Super 6 offers on fresh fruit and vegetables, to our partnership with Team GB and ParalympicsGB, we know how important a nutritious diet is for our customers,” says Aldi UK CEO Giles Hurley.

“We will continue to report on our healthier food sales and look forward to working with the government and industry to ensure customers always have access to healthy, affordable food.”

Lidl

Lidl radically shook up layouts in stores last year, with many categories moving to a new location, as reported by The Grocer at the time.

The changes included devoting more space at the front of store to fresh fruit & veg, along with a healthy snacking section, by moving tinned veg, pasta and sauces further back.

Frozen was relocated in a dedicated aisle near the front of the store, swapping places with beer, wines and spirits. Chilled meat, fish and poultry went to the very back of the store, swapping places with dairy.

Lidl’s 2025 healthy and sustainable diets policy says it is “working with a number of universities to understand the impact of different initiatives, supporting and evidencing best practice for how Lidl can influence positive behaviour change”.

The discounter also uses its Lidl Plus to offer ‘Pick of the Week’ discounts on six different fruits and veg every week.

Lidl was aiming for healthy and healthier products to account for at least 80% of sales by 2025 but exceeded the target, having now achieved 83%.

Co-op

Like Tesco and Sainsbury’s, Co-op says it has lowered prices across a wide range of its fresh fruit and veg as part of its Aldi Price Match campaign, as well as healthier staples such as wholemeal bread, milk, wholewheat pasta, eggs and frozen vegetables.

All its own-brand products which are ‘reduced’ or ‘light’ alternatives to a standard product are no more expensive per kg.

Co-op says it is also a key supporting partner in the Veg Power ‘Eat Them To Defeat Them’ campaign encouraging children and their parents to eat more vegetables.

In 2024, 78% of its own-brand food and drink volume sales, excluding alcohol, were from non-HFSS, and its target is 83% by 2030.

“As a responsible retailer, we’re committed to offering good-quality and affordable healthy food to our members and customers, and we will continue to engage with the government on their healthy food standard, adhering to any new guidelines and regulations as and when they may come into force,” says a Co-op spokesperson.

Iceland

Iceland promotes and highlights the UK and Scottish Healthier Start/Best Start voucher programmes for free fruit and vegetables on pack across hundreds of products.

It says it is focused on increasing sales of its key healthier exclusive brands, such as Mumsnet, Slimming World and Myprotein. To support this, its exclusive work with these brands includes on-pack, in-store, online and out-of-store product-level signposting.

Iceland publicly discloses and reports on the health of the products it sells by weight in line with best practice. Last year 90% of its own-label food sales by weight were classified as healthy (using the government Nutrient Profiling Model).

The frozen food retailer says it welcomes the government’s efforts to raise standards across the sector.

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