Tesco is to pilot checkout areas that offer a greater range of healthy products as part of new plans to nudge consumers towards a better diet.
This week, Tesco released figures for the first time claiming 60% of its sales came from products that could be defined as healthy under government guidelines.
However, it admitted that tens of thousands of customers still stocked up with baskets loaded with less healthy options.
The retailer said it would increase the amount of healthy food at self-scan checkout areas in 40% of Express stores and in all of its larger stores. It also announced a more extreme trial for 10 Tesco Extras, “with a view to rolling out further pilots”.
In a six-month update to its Tesco and Society strategy, released this week, the retailer said it was also planning a major new in-store marketing drive to direct customers to healthier options.
Tesco, which also promised to skew promotions towards healthier options, said its research showed the healthiest 5% of baskets contained 47% fruit & veg, while the least healthy 5% contained nearly a third snacks and sugary soft drinks.
The report said soft drinks - a category that The Grocer revealed in May Tesco was making major changes to - were a “key target” of the strategy.
“We are profiling all of the products we sell in the UK,” said the report. “We have completed over half, the equivalent of more than two-thirds of the volume of items going through our tills. This confirmed that around 60% of our sales come from ‘healthy’ products.
“We’re confident that this provides a good basis for profiling the food and drink that we sell and we want to spend the next three months consulting nutrition experts on our criteria before finalising and publicly sharing details.”
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