Supermarkets are undermining efforts to encourage children to eat healthily by continuing to position sweets by checkouts.
That is the conclusion of a report by The Children’s Food Campaign, which names Asda, Morrisons and Iceland as the worst offenders, by displaying junk food on four out of five checkouts in their stores. The Co-op, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose are also criticised for displaying unhealthy snacks near tills.
The Checkouts Checked Out report found that most supermarket branches and high street stores routinely promote unhealthy snacks at their checkout tills and in their queuing areas, despite several having promised a decade ago to reduce the practice. The report found that in many cases, junk food was positioned at children’s eye level, prompting children to pester their parents for sweets, crisps and soft drinks.
“Supermarkets claim to be responsible retailers, yet they continue to put their profits ahead of families’ health,” said Sophie Durham, co-author of the report.
Annie Seeley, a nutritionist and co-ordinator of the Food Commission’s Parents’ Jury, which investigated snacks at the checkout back in 2002 to 2005 said: “Supermarkets seem to have reneged on their promises made after the Food Commission’s investigation a decade ago, and returned to the same bad old marketing habits of selling snacks high in sugar, salt and fat at their checkouts.”
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