Supermarkets will be legally required to encourage shoppers to buy healthier food and drink as part of the government’s latest bid to tackle the UK’s obesity epidemic.
The proposals, set out in health secretary Wes Streeting’s 10-year Health Plan, due to be officially released next week, are part of a partnership between government and industry to ease pressure on the NHS.
Food retailers and manufacturers must “make the healthy choice the easy choice”, with supermarkets facing fines if they do not promote simple food swaps to make the average shopping basket ”slightly healthier”.
The healthy food standard outlines a series of ways supermarkets can nudge shoppers into making healthier choices during their weekly shops, 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.
All major UK supermarkets and large food businesses will also be required to carry out mandatory reporting on their healthy food sales. This reporting – which has been called for by Tesco and backed by other retailers – will ensure accountability and means each supermarket can show how successful it has been at nudging shoppers to make healthier choices.
These sales will then be measured against targets set by government, in partnership with the Food Strategy Advisory Board, as they aim to increase the healthiness of local communities. Supermarkets who consistently fail to meet these new mandatory food targets could be fined.
Full details of the new healthy food standard will be outlined in the government’s Food Strategy later this year.
Healthy food revolution
Experts believe that setting supermarkets clear targets could help reduce pressure on the NHS, stating that reducing a daily diet by just 50 calories would lift 340,000 children and 2 million adults out of obesity.
It comes as part of Streeting’s broader push to shift the focus of the nation’s health from sickness to prevention as part of his Plan for Change.
“Obesity has doubled since the 1990s and costs our NHS £11 billion a year,” said the health secretary. ”Unless we curb the rising tide of cost and demand, the NHS risks becoming unsustainable. The good news is that it only takes a small change to make a big difference. If the average meal could be just a bit healthier, we can lift millions out of obesity.
“Our brilliant supermarkets already do so much work for our communities and trying to make their stores heathier, and we want to work with them and other businesses to create a level playing field.
“Through our new healthy food standard, we will make the healthy choice the easy choice, because prevention is better than cure.”
Environment secretary Steve Reed said it was “vital” that the food industry delivers healthy food, that is ”available, affordable and appealing”.
Level playing field
Last month, Tesco CEO Ken Murphy came together with leading health charities, urging ministers to introduce mandatory reporting. Murphy welcomed today’s announcement, adding: “All food businesses have a critical part to play in providing good quality, affordable and healthy food.”
”At Tesco, we have measured and published our own healthier food sales for a number of years now, as we believe it is key to more evidence-led policy and better-targeted health interventions.”
Sainsbury’s CEO Simon Roberts, who has also previously championed the need for mandatory reporting, agreed, calling the move an “important and positive step forward in helping the nation to eat well”, adding that a ”level playing field” was needed across the whole food sector if the plan was to have a ”real and lasting impact”.
Aldi UK CEO Giles Hurley also welcomed the announcement, adding that the supermarket’s mission has ”always been to make good healthy food affordable for all”.
A healthier future
Obesity Health Alliance, a coalition of 60 health organisations, has applauded the plan – which it describes as a ’high-impact, evidence-informed action to prevent ill health’ – while also calling for it to go further, making healthier food more affordable and banning promotion of less healthy products.
Director Katharine Jenner said: ”Responsible retailers as well as restaurants, takeaways and cafes, should all have no problem focusing on selling products that help people live well”.
“The government has rightly diagnosed the root cause of obesity-related ill health: a food system that makes it so hard to eat healthily. It shines a light on the role of the food industry and crucially puts the responsibility for change in their hands – not on individuals already struggling to get by.”
The Food and Drink Federation also welcomed the government’s proposals, stating it recognised the need for ”bold and coordinated action to support the nation’s health”.
A spokesperson added: “Food and drink manufacturers take the issue of obesity and poor diets very seriously and have made significant progress over the past decade. In 2024 alone, businesses invested £180m in R&D to develop healthier products. As a result, FDF members’ products now have 31% less salt, 30% less sugar and 24% fewer calories, compared to a decade ago.
”We look forward to working in partnership with government to build a healthier future, ensuring that there’s a stable regulatory environment to give businesses the confidence to continue investing in developing healthier options for shoppers.”
Describing the introduction of mandatory reporting as a “game changer”, The Food Foundation executive director Anna Taylor said the ”simple act of transparency delivers the opportunity for systemic change – informing better policy design and triggering boardroom conversations”.
“The data will also clearly reveal to consumers which businesses are on their side and making healthy choices easy, and which are making it actively harder for them to eat well. The sooner this is introduced, the better.”
Today’s announcement is the latest in a line of measures which have been introduced with the aim of improving the nation’s health. The HFSS legislation has placed a number of restrictions on junk food advertising, while the recent extension of the soft drink ‘sugar tax’ has been the subject of much controversy in the industry.
Earlier this week, it was also revealed that government was considering placing restrictions on alcohol ads, including a pre-watershed ban.
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