LEADING supermarket chains have dramatically increased promotions featuring cheap, unhealthy food during the credit crunch, a consumer watchdog claims today.
The National Consumer Council (NCC) said fatty and sugary foods made up more than half (54 per cent) of in-store promotions, nearly double the number recorded in the last survey in 2006. This is despite government health advice that such foods shoul
d make up just 7 per cent of diets.
Morrisons was the worst offender for the fourth consecutive time, with 63 per cent of its promotions featuring sugary and fatty foods, the NCC said.
Just one in eight promotions featured fruit and vegetables, despite health advice recommending they make up a minimum 33 per cent of a total diet.
The figures are published in the NCC's fourth report rating the UK's top eight supermarkets on efforts to help customers eat healthily.
Researchers rated supermarkets on the salt content of own-brand foods, labelling, price promotions, prevalence of sweets at the checkout and information available to consumers.
Sainsbury's is ranked top for the second time in a row, followed by the Co-operative. Tesco came joint fifth, losing points on labelling and the nutrition content of their own-label products.
Lucy Yates, senior policy advocate at the NCC and the report's author, said: "Despite their claims, the supermarkets all still have a long way to go to help customers choose a healthier diet."
The Co-operative, Tesco and Waitrose all scored full marks for keeping sweets away from the checkout, but Marks & Spencer scored zero. All retailers had made improvements in the salt content of their standard products since 2006.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) claimed the report was misleading as it compared figures from Easter this year with July 2006 promotions, a month when fruit and vegetables are more plentiful and promoted more heavily.
However, the NCC said it ignored all products this year related to Easter.
BRC food director Andrew Opie said: "This ill-informed report will not distract us from our work with the FSA and Department of Health on tackling obesity; work for which UK retailers are recognised as European leaders."
Tesco said it had a wide variety of healthy products on promotion and pledged to offer at least five fruit and vegetable products at half price every week.
A spokesman for the store chain said: We have (nutritional labelling] on more products than any other retailer, and we see further evidence it is helping consumers every day as sales of healthier alternatives increase."
A spokeswoman for Morrisons said of the report: "It's six months out of date, contains a number of inaccuracies and is a largely subjective assessment which ignores the focus we place on fresh food in all our stores … it is not an accurate or useful guide for customers."
The full article contains 474 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
