Sainsbury’s has significantly increased its sales of fresh fruit and vegetables, according to the Food Foundation’s Peas Please initiative.

The Big 4 grocer was recognised by the Food Foundation in Leeds on 18 May, with the runner up being Henderson Spar in Northern Ireland.

The Peas Please Initiative has been active for six years, with over 100 pledgers from across the food sector.

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Currently, 90% of retailers have joined the movement, making pledges to promote and encourage shoppers to consumer more veg.

Sainsbury’s has renewed its pledge, to increase the proportion of its total vegetable sales by 1% of tonnage.

Additionally, the Food Foundation highlighted the supermarket’s successful schemes such as the offer of competitively priced “Imperfectly Tasty” and “Greengrocer” fruit and vegetables.

The Food Foundation also revealed that Lidl had joined the campaign with significant new commitments, while Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Aldi and Waitrose were “well on the way to meeting their targets”.

On top of this, Morrisons has also signed up to the initiative recently, pledging to support more advertising and promotion of veg both in-store and online.

Despite this, an update last year revealed less than a quarter of adults were eating enough vegetables a day and almost a third of children were eating less than the equivalent of one portion a day.

“We are delighted by the huge growth in industry support for the Peas Please project,” Food Foundation executive director Anna Taylor said.

“More and more businesses are recognising they have a crucial role in tackling the poor nutrition crisis which is causing an epidemic of obesity and ill health.”

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