Retailers are increasing the number of non-HFSS products included in multibuy and bogof deals as they look to push healthy eating in the UK.
According to new data from The Food Foundation, the total proportion of multibuy offers on healthier groceries – like fruit and veg – rose in July to 4.2% and 4.5% respectively. This was across the top five retailers including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Aldi and Morrisons.
However, the number of multibuy or bogof deals on products classed as HFSS fell slightly, from 29% in April to 27.3% in July.
Of the five supermarkets included, Asda saw the biggest shift, with 23% of its multibuys during the period on products classed as non-HFSS.
However, the supermarket still had the joint-highest proportion of multibuys on HFSS products, with 11%, along with Morrisons. Sainsbury’s and Aldi continue to run price reduction strategies, so do not offer multibuys outside alcohol.
Tesco – which pledged to phase out multibuy deals along with Sainsbury’s – ran the smallest proportion of deals on HFSS products, at 6%.
The UK’s largest retailer has now set the target of 65% of its sales to come from non-HFSS products by 2025.
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Senior business and investor manager at The Food Foundation, Rebecca Tobi, told The Grocer: “When you poll customers, they come out really strongly in favour of wanting more offers and deals on healthier, more sustainable products.
“Broadly speaking it’s encouraging to see that retailers are listening but there’s huge scope for more progress and a much greater pace. You need to make the healthy choice the easy choice,” she added.
In July, The Food Foundation revealed that one third of ‘buy one get one free’ and multibuy deals are on unhealthy food.
