To help more households achieve a diet in line with the Eatwell Guide, through year-on-year growth in healthy (non-HFSS) choices, fruit and veg, and fibre
We are passionate about helping our customers enjoy diets that are healthier and more sustainable, and we aim to make good food affordable, accessible, convenient and enjoyable for everyone. By removing barriers and working collaboratively, we aim to help customers make healthier, more sustainable choices more often. For us, this means helping more customers achieve a plant-rich diet that is in line with the government’s Eatwell Guide.1-3
We know today’s diets are falling short of dietary recommendations with only 4% of adults getting 30g fibre a day and 83% of adults not getting the recommended at least five-a-day4. The 2021 National Food Strategy highlights the need for significant shifts in national diets in the UK to meet health, climate and nature commitments. This includes a 30% increase in fruit and vegetables, a 50% increase in fibre and a 25% decrease in HFSS foods.5
That’s why we’re focusing our efforts where we can have the greatest impact: growing healthier (non-HFSS) sales, fruit and veg, and fibre.
Our ambition
Our progress so far
| Baseline | Results | Target | ||
| 2021/22 FY | 2024/25 FY | 2025/26 FY | 2025/26 FY | |
| Healthy and better for you sales tonnage as a proportion of total sales tonnage (%) | 82.0% | 81.9% | 82.2% | 85.0% |
In 2021, we set an ambitious target to achieve 85% total sales tonnage from Healthy and Better for you products by 2025/26. In 2025/26, 82.2% of our total sales tonnage came from Healthy and Better for you products, with our own brand sales at 88.5%. You can read more in our Plan for Better 25/26 report.
Tracking progress
Looking ahead, we will disclose our progress against our three target areas – to grow healthy (non-HFSS) choices, fruit and veg, and fibre - annually as a tonnage growth percentage from a 2025/26 baseline, to show meaningful progress.
We remain strong advocates of the NHS’ 10-year health plan to mandate healthy sales reporting and will align reporting requirements in line with this. Until then, we will move to adopt the government’s definition of healthy sales i.e. using the 2004/05 Nutrient Profiling Model (NPM) to report % HFSS sales tonnage, alongside a sales-weighted NPM score, splitting out food and drink sales in line with recommendations from external think tanks, for reporting purposes. We will also report progress as total and own-brand sales.
For areas like baby food, alcohol sales and supplements, these will remain exempt from reporting. Current metrics such as %HFSS are not appropriate measures of healthiness in these specialist categories.
We remain strong advocates of the NHS’ 10-year health plan to mandate healthy sales reporting and will align reporting requirements in line with this. Until then, we will move to adopt the government’s definition of healthy sales i.e. using the 2004/05 Nutrient Profiling Model (NPM) to report % HFSS sales tonnage, alongside a sales-weighted NPM score, splitting out food and drink sales in line with recommendations from external think tanks, for reporting purposes. We will also report progress as total and own-brand sales.
For areas like baby food, alcohol sales and supplements, these will remain exempt from reporting. Current metrics such as %HFSS are not appropriate measures of healthiness in these specialist categories.
Our approach
Our health strategy has three clear priorities; growing healthy (non-HFSS) choices, fruit and veg, and fibre. These pillars shape our approach across the business.
Growing healthier sales
To help our customers better navigate to healthier choices more often, we will continue to use our Healthy Choice logo – which is now on over 1,250 products - and clearer navigation in store and online, as well as reward and gamification via Nectar through initiatives like our Healthy Choice Challenge. Our customer insights show that healthy eating is a journey, with many customers seeking choices that are “healthy enough” rather than always choosing the healthiest choice. We want to help customers shift from less healthy choices to healthier options, without compromising on taste, value or convenience.
Alongside this, we will work closely with our suppliers on targeted product renovation and innovations, to help to lower our sales-weighted NPM score over time.
Growing fibre sales
We will make it easier to spot and choose fibre favourites through reformulation, innovation and increased transparency. Our new ‘Full on Fibre’ logo will help make it easier to navigate to these choices when shopping online and in store – something we know customers especially struggle with. We’ll leverage Nectar to offer nudges and great offers and we will back this with great value so that higher-fibre choices are affordable for all. We’ll also help everyone to find the joy in fibre through simple inspiration that helps people build it into everyday meals, so healthier choices feel not only achievable, but enjoyable too.
Growing fruit and vegetable sales
We aim to get more fruit and veg into mealtimes across the UK and encourage plant-rich choices to help better balance the diet, by making it easier to build these products into everyday meals with quick dinner solutions and great options for lunch on the go that focus on fresh. As part of this focus, we have set an ambition to increase beans tonnage, with a pledge made as part of The Food Foundation’s Bang in Some Beans campaign to increase plain pulses sales tonnage by 2028/29. We’ll also test incentives that reward these choices through Nectar, whilst working to inspire everyone to find the joy in delicious fresh food too.
Supporting healthier choices for every customer
We recognise health is broader than these three focus areas, so we will continue to support healthier choices across a wider range of areas too, including helping customers diversify their protein (including more fish and plant-rich options), supporting mindful drinking with an ambition to grow sales by 30 per cent by 2030, and offering health and wellness ranges that work for everyone, including functional nutrition.
We’re proud of the progress we have made to support healthier choices over the last few decades and of our heritage in this critical area. As we evolve our approach, we look forward to helping even more people find delicious, convenient and affordable good food that they enjoy.
References
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 June 2026].
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 June 2026].
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.
Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. 2025. “National Diet and Nutrition Survey 2019 to 2023.” Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-diet-and-nutrition-survey-2019-to-2023. [Accessed June 2026].
National Food Strategy. The National Food Strategy. 2021 (online). Available at: The National Food Strategy - The Plan. [Accessed June 2026].
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
Helping our customers make healthier choices on Groceries Online
To help make shopping easier for our customers, we have introduced 28 new product filters on Groceries Online. These new allergy, intolerance, dietary and lifestyle filters utilised advanced data processing systems to match products to customer needs and preferences, helping customers find suitable products more easily.
Case study
Meeting specific dietary needs through innovation
In January 2026, we launched Small but Mighty, a range of nutrient-rich meals that help customers with smaller appetites (such as older adults or those on GLP-1 medications) meet essential nutritional needs. The nutrition criteria for these meals was developed in partnership with specialist dietitian Nichola Ludlam-Raine, with all meals being high in protein, at least a source of fibre and providing at least 1 of your 5 a day.
Case study
Incentivising healthy choices
To encourage customers to make healthy choices, we piloted an evolution of our Nectar Fruit and Veg Challenge in June 2025 and January 2026, extending this challenge to Healthy Choice badged lines. Across the two challenge periods, 959,000 additional products with the logo were sold as part of this promotion. The summer and winter challenges saw sales uplifts of 9 per cent and 6 per cent respectively in Healthy Choice products purchased.
