Championing good food for everyone
At Sainsbury’s our purpose is simple. To make good food joyful, accessible and affordable for everyone, every day. It’s a principle that guided us more than 150 years ago when we opened our first store and it remains central to the decisions we make today.
Good food depends on a thriving food system that’s fit for the future. Our Plan for Better sets out our roadmap for securing that future – with a commitment to sharing our progress transparently and being open about the challenges ahead.
As we release this year’s Plan for Better report, climate change, global instability and cost of living pressures continue to shape daily life for customers, colleagues, farmers and suppliers. Championing good food has never mattered more and we are using our scale, our influence and our long-term partnerships to drive meaningful, lasting change.
This year we have made strong progress. More than half of our Scope 3 emissions are now covered by suppliers who have approved 1.5°C SBTi targets and we have significantly reduced food waste sent to anaerobic digestion. We continue to lead on human rights, ranking first in the CCLA Modern Slavery Benchmark and rated ‘Advanced’ by the Platform for Living Wage Financials. In seafood, we offer the UK’s largest range of MSC labelled products as of March 2025 and have been named ASC UK Retailer of the Year for the fourth consecutive year. Our own brand canned tuna remains exclusively pole and line caught.
These achievements are only possible thanks to our colleagues, farmers, suppliers and partners. While I’m proud of what we’ve achieved, there is more to do.
Good food, delivered in partnership
Securing the future of good food means deepening our long-term partnerships, supporting the transition to more sustainable farming and helping customers enjoy food that’s good for them and good for the planet.
We believe partnership is essential to securing a sustainable future for our food system as it remains under pressure. We started building long-term agreements nearly twenty years ago and they continue to make a meaningful difference. Adding to our long-term agreements across our pork, poultry, fresh produce and dairy categories, we have signed new agreements with our carrot and parsnip farmers, and through our long standing partnership with Monaghan Mushrooms we are continuing to expand our range of mushrooms grown without peat.
Good food also means accelerating the transition to more sustainable farming.Through our Plan for Better, we work with our high environmental impact suppliers to protect and regenerate the natural systems that underpin food production, improving soil health and biodiversity and strengthening resilience across our supply chains.
By combining long-term partnerships with practical support, data and innovation, we are reducing emissions and driving more sustainable ways of producing food. We will continue to prioritise collaboration, embed these practices more deeply and support farmers to invest for the future, helping to build a resilient, low impact food system for generations to come.
This year we reached our target of planting an additional 1.5 million trees with the Woodland Trust, bringing the total to over 5.4 million since 2004. In the next phase, we aim to lead in agroforestry solutions that restore UK trees and woodlands, improve farm resilience, support animal welfare and nature on farms. Thousands of farms across the UK benefit from these long-term agreements, supporting livelihoods and communities while ensuring we can offer great quality, affordable food whenever customers want it.
Securing good food for everyone
No child or family should go without the essentials they need to thrive, yet millions in the UK face this reality. Since 2022, our partnership with Comic Relief has raised over £26 million, enabling more than 60 million meals and supporting over 2 million people. We’ve funded food clubs, holiday programmes and community support, while rallying partners, government and industry to drive wider change. Our new ambition is to raise £30 million by 2030 – doubling our impact to 120 million meals for children and families since 2022.
Alongside this, we partnered with the Department for Education’s free breakfast club programme, donating £200 gift cards to 1,320 schools, helping provide nutritious breakfasts to up to 280,000 children.
Making good food joyful, easy and affordable
Customers want food that helps them feel good and live well, without compromising on value or taste. We strive to make good food easier to find, more exciting to choose and more affordable every day and we continue to advocate for transparency and clearer standards so customers can make confident choices.
This year we are resetting our healthy diets strategy, with new ambitions across fibre, fresh food and healthier choices, backed by meaningful investment in products and initiatives to help everyone enjoy good food. We remain committed to working with government and industry to help the nation eat well.
Good food for the future
As the world around us continues to change, we must do everything we can to champion the future of good food. That means genuine collaboration, shared ambition and long term commitment across the whole system. Because when we work together, we can build a food system that truly works for everyone – one that drives economic growth, improves public health, protects the environment and creates lasting social value.
Simon Roberts
Chief Executive
2 June 2026
