At least 85% of our sales tonnage to comprise Healthy and Better for you products by 2025/26
We are committed to providing access to affordable, nutritious, diverse, food to help make future generations and our planet healthier for longer. We believe everyone should enjoy good food and we aim to help our customers achieve healthier, more sustainable dietary shifts by unlocking barriers and, through collaboration, driving systems level change.
The food choices we make has a significant impact on our health and the health of our planet. Current practices have led to food production being the single largest source of environmental change1,2.
Many of the risks we are seeing from global warming to loss of biodiversity, pollution of waterways, deforestation and land degradation are associated with the unsustainable production of food.
We are serious about our responsibility to help our customers eat healthily. For us, this means helping more customers achieve a plant-rich diet that is in line with the government’s Eatwell Guide.
Our ambition
Our progress so far
| Baseline | Results | Target | ||
| 2021/22 FY | 2023/24 FY | 2024/25 FY | 2025/26 FY | |
| Healthy and better for you sales tonnage as a proportion of total sales tonnage (%) | 82.0% | 80.9% | 81.9% | 85.0% |
We track the proportion of sales which are Healthy and Better For You and progress towards the UK government’s recommended diet by measuring total basket shifts relative to the Eatwell Guide.
Tracking progress
To track progress, we have set a target to achieve 85% healthy and better for you sales tonnage sold by 2025/26. We have committed to reporting yearly to transparently share our progress.
In addition, we report on the typical basket balance of a primary shopper and the protein diversity and reformulation progress for our own-brand sales.
In addition, we report on the typical basket balance of a primary shopper and the protein diversity and reformulation progress for our own-brand sales.
Our approach
To help more customers to shop in line with the Eatwell Guide by 2030, as this is known to be better for our health and better for the planet.
We want to help customers on their journey to enjoying a healthy balanced diet more often, and reducing our reliance on 5 animals and 12 crops for over 75% of our calories, we recognise that there are 3 areas where we need to see change in line with the Eatwell Guide.
We have therefore identified the following 3 priority pillars for action, alongside key initiatives to help deliver progress towards our ambition by 2027:
In 2020, we undertook an extensive piece of work to review the nutrition criteria used to define healthy sales. The new criteria takes a category-specific approach based on existing and well-established external nutrient criteria. It is not a new model in and of itself.
The approach aims to help us identify better choices within categories for both branded and own-label products, along a spectrum from less healthy to most healthy. This will help us track shifts in sales for internal purposes. It will also be used to help inform the mix of products that feature in any trials and customer initiatives. The decision tree which supports this new approach is shown below and is supported by more detailed criteria that we will be integrated into our internal systems. This new approach aims to reward products for meeting the following criteria:
- Number of red multiple traffic lights
- Public Health England reformulation criteria for sugar and salt
- Portion size (where appropriate)
- Regulated levels for certain nutrition claims
- Favours products included on the Eatwell Guide
As a result, products that count towards healthy sales volume for Sainsbury’s will always:
- Provide a source of positive nutrition relevant to the core foods group from which it derived
- Meet key reformulation targets
- Have no red traffic lights (unless naturally occurring)
Our interactive decision tree for foods, beverages and composite foods supports our approach and is supported by more detailed criteria that we will be integrated into our internal systems. Suppliers can also access extra resources and further support on our Together With website. 
For reformulation targets, we have applied the sales-weighted average as a hard target. We recognise this is not precisely how the Government targets were intended to be applied and is not a perfect solution.
The approach is likely to evolve as Government priorities and criteria also evolve, but also as we improve the quality of our branded product data and learn about how the model works in practice too.
We recognise our approach does limit the comparability against other retailers’ reporting and commitments which are based on ‘HFSS’ measurements. As well as additional reporting on HFSS measures, we have produced a report to highlight how the FSA/Ofcom model and the Sainsbury’s Healthier Choices model compare, to increase confidence in our internal health rating system.
The global food system is responsible for 25-30% of Greenhouse gas emissions (GHGe), contributing to climate change, deforestation, water scarcity and biodiversity loss1,2,3. Of this, agriculture is responsible for around 40% of GHGe1. As we have industrialised our food system, we have also reduced the diversity within our diets and now just 5 animals and 12 crops make up over 75% of our edible calories globally4.
To continue to feed more and more people – almost 10 billion by 2050 – we will need to evolve our food system to produce food within our planetary boundaries5 and make dietary shifts which will have significant impacts on climate change2.
Work conducted by Scheelbeek et al (2020) among others6,7, has shown that shifting from our current dietary intakes in the UK towards the Eatwell Guide, would help to achieve this change. This, in turn, will support businesses to better deliver on the demand-driven aspects of their scope 3 commitments, whilst also benefitting population health outcomes that are attributed to diet (one of the biggest causes of premature death in the UK8).
But we recognise this will be a big change, as today, <1% of the UK population is achieving a diet in line with the Eatwell Guide9.
In addition to encouraging plant-rich choices to help better balance the diet, we are currently developing our protein diversification strategy. This will focus on 4 priority areas:
- Product innovation
- Sustainable Sourcing
- Category mix
- Sector action e.g. to support better product level data on sustainability metrics and consistent definitions and disclosures to support ‘better’ sales.
WWF Basket partnership
We are signatories of the WWF retailer basket which aims to halve the environmental impact of the basket by 2030. Together with other UK retailers, we report progress annually on a series of metrics that reflect our efforts to help improve the balance of the basket to be more in line with dietary recommendations for health.
Partnerships: key suppliers
We have had long-standing relationships with many of our suppliers. For example, the Sainsbury’s Dairy Development Board brings together milk producers and has focused collectively on key issues such as animal welfare through early detection methods for calf health supported by farmer bonuses. This has existed for over 10 years.
More information on how we work with key suppliers can be found here.
Partnerships: driving sector progress
We recognise that a big part of our ability to take action will depend on better product level data on both the healthiness and sustainability of our products. At present, we have good data on the healthiness of our products and category-average data on the emissions of key raw materials.
References:
1. Nation Food Strategy. The National Food Strategy. 2021 (online). Available at: The National Food Strategy - The Plan. [Accessed June 2024].
2. WWF. Eating For Net Zero: How Diet Shift Can Enable A Nature Positive Net Zero Transition In The UK. 2023 (online) Available at: Eating for Net Zero (wwf.org.uk). [Accessed June 2024].
3. World Resources Institute. Creating a Sustainable Food Future. 2024 (online). Available at: Securing a Sustainable Food Future | World Resources Institute (wri.org). [Accessed June 2024].
4. Wellcome Trust website accessed 3/7/24 - Explained: climate change and the health risks of food homogeneity | News | Wellcome
5. Eat Lancet. Summary Report of the EAT-Lancet Commission. 2021 (online) Available at: EAT-Lancet_Commission_Summary_Report.pdf(eatforum.org). [Accessed June 2024].
6. British Dietetic Association. One Blue Dot: Eating patterns for healthy and environmental sustainability – a reference guide for dietitians. 2020 (online). Available at: https://www.bda.uk.com/resource/one-blue-dot.html [Accessed May 2023].
7. The Carbon Trust. The Eatwell Guide: a more sustainable diet: methodology and results summary. 2016 (Online). Available at: https://www.carbontrust.com/our-work-and-impact/guides-reports-and-tools/the-eatwell-guide-a-more-sustainable-diet [Accessed May 2023].
8. The Food Foundation. Obesity and dietary risks are leading causes of deaths and disability in UK 17th May 2024. Available at: https://foodfoundation.org.uk/press-release/obesity-and-dietary-risks-are-leading-causes-deaths-and-disability-uk [Accessed June 2024]
9. Scheelbeek P, Green R, Papier K, et al. Health impacts and environmental footprints of diets that meet the Eatwell Guide recommendations: analyses of multiple UK studies. BMJ Open 2020;10:e037554. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2020-037554.
We know that our food environment can have a huge influence on the food choices we might make. And, whilst there are many behavioural frameworks to help inform health trials in retailing environments, nothing beats testing these ideas in real-world settings, where so many different factors might be at play and influencing our purchasing patterns.
Our healthy and sustainable diets plan covers four main areas:
- Affordability
Safeguarding funds for valuable communities while making healthier foods more affordable for all, using Aldi Price matching, Nectar rewards and campaigns.
- Availability
Positioning and availability of healthy food in stores and online through recommendations. While making food healthier through innovation and reformulation. Our ongoing development programme ensures we continue to improve the nutrient profile of our products while making sure we never compromise on quality or taste for our customers.
- Rewards and Incentives
Encouraging health sales through incentivisation and rewarding healthy eating. We've been running our annual Great Fruit & Veg Challenge since 2018, rewarding customers with Nectar points for buying more fruit and veg portions.
- Awareness
Encouraging healthier recipes through advertising and promotions and creating recipe bundles containing healthier alternatives. While also making heathier choices easier to find in stores through labelling including our Healthy choice logo.
We are committed to being a partner in reducing obesity and promoting healthier choices to our customers. Sainsbury’s has actively engaged with the UK, Scottish and Welsh Governments concerning their respective obesity policies. We welcome the planned advertising regulations and restrictions on multibuys in England. Indeed, we ceased using multibuys as a promotional mechanic on food and soft drink in 2016. We acknowledge that to be effective as business, we need regulations that deliver certainty, a level playing field, and efficiencies across policies and across Government departments) underpinned by effective enforcement. Test and learns can also be an efficient way to build the evidence and model the economic cost: benefit of any proposed regulation, whilst addressing areas of ambiguity.
We support Public Health England’s targets to reduce calories, sugar and salt, and encourage increased fruit and vegetable intakes. Our submissions on Government consultation responses are made publicly available through the relevant Government department’s website.
Our health and sustainability policies can be found in Reports and policies.
We're all on a journey and we need to work together to deliver systems change at scale
Sainsbury’s work with key partners, such as charities, academic institutions and organisations that are advancing our scientific knowledge, communication and education around healthy and sustainable diets. Our partnership with Livestock Environment and People (LEAP) in 2018 supported environmental research projects with the University of Oxford. As part of this initiative, we became the first UK supermarket to trial and publish the impact of selling meat-alternative products in meat aisles. Our ongoing Leeds Institute for Data Analytics (LIDA) partnership has enabled us to get a better understanding of customer’s baskets in relation to the Government's Eatwell Guide and to evaluate fruit and vegetable purchasing patterns across the Yorkshire and Humber region. We continue to invest in research to make healthy and sustainable choices easier for customers and have partnered with the IGD and LIDA on their Healthy and Sustainable Diets research projects.
We are part of a multi-disciplinary UKRI Transforming Food Systems collaboration with six UK universities under FIO Food. This 3-year project aims to combine knowledge of large-scale population data with an understanding of the lived experiences of food shopping for people living with obesity and food insecurity, and to co-create solutions to improve sustainable and healthier food choices.
Sainsbury’s are pledgers to the Food Foundation’s Peas Please initiative, which promotes the benefits of vegetables to customers, and also a corporate supporter of Veg Power, a not-for-profit nationwide alliance with a mission to inspire and support kids to have veggie-loving habits they will share with their family today and their own children tomorrow. Veg Power have created award-winning campaigns, including ‘Eat Them to Defeat Them’, a TV advertising campaign which linked with school, local government and catering companies. The 2022 schools’ programme was the biggest and most successful yet, reaching over one million children in primary and special schools.
Case study
Healthy Choice Logo
Wherever you see our Healthy Choice logo, you can be sure you are choosing a product that supports a balanced diet. Our Healthy Choice logo is here to make it easier for you to shop for healthy options. Look for it across a variety of product categories to quickly spot options that support a balanced diet. Wherever you see the logo, you’ll also find the nutrient or dietary benefit the product delivers.
The criteria behind the logo have been carefully developed by our nutritionists and dietitians to help you identify the better options within a food category and is in line with the UK’s dietary guidelines for health – known as the Eatwell Guide. The badge will help you identify the Healthy Choice across everyday scratch cook staples like fruits and vegetables, wholegrain starchy carbohydrates, pulses, lentils, lean meats, fish, and low fat dairy or alternatives. In addition, we’ve also identified products in convenience categories like ready meals, sandwiches, meal sides, breakfast options and snacks.
Case study
Nudges on groceries online
With the launch of our 'Frequently Bought Together' recommendations on Product Display Pages (PDPs), we removed recommendations on products that were less healthy, resulting in a three per cent increase in the average health rating of products added to basket from the placement. We have also trialled up-weighting healthier products on our 'Similar products' section, meaning if a recommended product was given a higher health rating than the selected product, it was moved to second position in the carousel. This had a slight positive impact on the healthiness of products added to basket.
Case study
New product ranges major on low-sugar, high protein, gut-friendly health choice
Sainsbury’s launched a new functional health range this year with four nutritious raw pressed juices and two juice shots. In a first for UK supermarket own brand products, the juices and shots feature watermelon juice in place of traditional apple juice. As watermelon juice is naturally lower in sugar, the drinks are up to 45 per cent lower in sugar than many other standard juices on the market. The juices are cold pressed and high-pressure processed, retaining more nutrients and a fresher taste than juices which are pasteurised and heated in the usual way.
With more customers actively managing their gut health, we have launched a by Sainsbury’s yogurt plain kefir drink and strawberry kefir drink, with further flavours to follow in 2025. With over five billion live cultures from 14 different culture strains, the kefir drink is high in calcium, contributing to the normal function of digestive enzymes, and protein, which supports the growth and maintenance of muscle mass.
In addition, we introduced three new by Sainsbury’s protein fat free yogurts made without the use of artificial ingredients. They are naturally sweetened with real fruit, offering customers a satisfying snack with 15g of natural protein per pot.
