Special offers on unhealthy food and drinks should be restricted in an attempt to curb Britain’s expanding waistlines, experts have said.
The UK government is consulting on restricting the promotion of foods high in fat, sugar and salt, in terms of their price and their location in stores – for example by the tills.
Cancer Research UK (CRUK) has released a report it says adds weight to proposed moves, revealing shoppers who chase supermarket deals buy fewer fruits and vegetables and more unhealthy food than those who do not, and are more often overweight or obese.
“These promotions look like they are pushing us in the wrong direction – certainly those people who are buying more promotions are ending up with baskets that are more skewed than general towards less healthy products,” said Malcolm Clark, a policy manager at CRUK.
Research has previously shown that removing unhealthy snacks from checkouts immediately reduces their purchase by 17%, with the benefit apparently long-lasting.
In the new report, the CRUK team analysed the shopping habits of 16,148 British households for up to seven months between January and July 2017. Among the considerations were the use of promotional offers, the contents of the shopping baskets and various aspects of the shoppers’ lives, including whether they were overweight or obese.
The report reveals that, on average, just under a third of food and drink items were bought on promotion, with no effect of social class, and only small differences by region or life stage, although retired households were not included. Wealthier households appeared to be slightly bigger fans of promotions than those less well off.
When the team divided the participants into four groups based on the proportion of items they bought on promotion, they found 72% of the top group – who bought between 38% and 82% of items on promotion – were overweight or obese compared with 64% of the lowest group, who bought 21% or less of promoted items. The trend remained even when income and other factors were taken into account.
The team notes that the top group of promotion-chasers did not end up with more items in their basket, or much more in the way of calories, than those who opted least for deals. But promotion-lovers did go home with about a 25% greater volume of food and drinks high in fat, sugar or salt. There was also a noticeable swing away from fibre towards sugar, with more goods such as cakes and sweets in the basket and fewer fruits, vegetables and staple “other” foods.
Clark added that this skew might mean people are eating more of their main meals out of the home, which could increase calorie consumption, or simply getting more of their calories from snacks than meals.
The report chimes with previous studies on the issue: a 2015 report by Public Health England found that price promotions ramped up the amount of food and drink people bought by 20%.
However, the team behind the new study says it might under-report purchases, while it does not include data on what people eat outside of the home or specific calorie breakdowns of foods. What’s more, the analysis does not prove that promotion-chasing shopping habits causes people to be obese or overweight.
Nonetheless, CRUK is calling for the government to introduce restrictions on special offers on unhealthy food and drinks, starting with a crackdown on multi-buy offers.
Naveed Sattar, professor of metabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, backed the calls. “Some people cannot resist the offer of cheaper food or ‘tempting’ offers and these often lead them to eat more calories than they would otherwise, and so put on weight,” he said. “Legislation for such offers should be easy and should be implemented.”
Tom Watson, the deputy Labour leader, said Britain’s obesity epidemic is too big to ignore. “Obesity is increasing our risk of serious conditions, like cancer and type 2 diabetes, and placing a huge financial toll on our already squeezed NHS,” he said.
“In this context, it’s a scandal that the food available on special offer is often so unhealthy. We must work towards a system where fresh, healthy and less processed foods are available and affordable for everyone. Achieving this is a crucial part of improving the country’s health.”
