Posted on 07/02/2025 3:59:25 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Supermarkets will reportedly be required to make significant changes to their stores as part of a government crackdown on obesity.
The Government plans to introduce a health food standard for supermarkets to make the average shopping basket 'slightly healthier' and ease pressure on the NHS.
Public health experts say that cutting 50 calories a day would lift 340,000 children and 2 million adults out of obesity, which is one of the root causes of diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
Major supermarkets will have to report on healthy food sales and 'increase the healthiness of sales in communities across the UK', according to the Department of Health and Social Care.
This means that they may have to reformulate products, change the layout of stores, offer discounts on healthy foods, or change loyalty schemes to promote healthier options.
Wes Streeting, health and social care secretary said: 'Our brilliant supermarkets already do so much work for our communities and are trying to make their stores healthier, and we want to work with them and other businesses to create a level playing field.
'Through our new healthy food standard, we will make the healthy choice the easy choice, because prevention is better than cure.'
He told Sky News that the plans were not 'nanny statism' but a 'world-first approach'.
The health department said that many supermarkets 'want to do more to make the average shopping basket healthier, but they risk changes hitting their bottom lines if their competitors don't act at the same time.
'The new standard will introduce a level playing field, so there isn't a first mover disadvantage.'
It is the latest attempt by central government to push supermarkets into promoting healthy food.
In 2022, supermarkets were banned from displaying products high in fat, salt and sugar in shop entrances and till areas.
A ban on junk food adverts targeting children, which was due to be introduced in October, is set to be delayed until next year.
Research by Which? Shows that three in five consumers said they support the Government introduced health targets for supermarkets.
Read More Tesco to close some Express stores an hour earlier after being hit by £235m in Reeves' tax raid article image Some of the UK's biggest supermarkets have welcomed the announcement
Ken Murphy, Tesco chief executive, said the supermarket giant had called for 'mandatory reporting for all supermarkets and major food businesses and why we welcome the Government's announcement on this.
'We look forward to working with them on the detail of the Healthy Food Standard and its implementation by all relevant food businesses.'
Simon Roberts, chief executive of Sainsbury's added: '[The] announcement from Government is an important and positive step forward in helping the nation to eat well.
'We need a level playing field across the entirety of our food sector for these actions to have a real and lasting impact.'
Sure wouldn’t want to live/shop there. They’d cut me off from ice cream!
Rules for Grocery Store Success
1. Stay on the periphery of the grocery store.
2. Never enter the interior aisles.
Everything government touches it destroys.
Zactly
This is what you get with government run healthcare.
This is really stupid...
I thought they were gonna have to make the aisles wider.
The best exercise is to push oneself away from the table.
Well if junk food and everything in those “interior” aisles is bad, why do stores carry them? Take them off the shelves and be done with it if you know what is so “good” for us.
RE: Public health experts say that cutting 50 calories a day (to end obesity)...
What kind of lunacy is this?
There once was a fad including the 1980s book The 200 Calorie Solution ~ How to Burn an Extra 200 Calories a Day and Stop Dieting
By Martin Katahn. Problem is the body’s “set point” to maintain equilibrium made the metabolism accept the new lower calorie intake and adjust to it so it could gain weight as usual. Really disappointing to me.
I have tried all sorts of diets and weight reduction schemes but my thyroid does not permit me to have its permission to lose weight.
DON’T bring that BRIT/EU Schiff here !!
They just need to make the doors really narrow.
Obese shoppers can’t fit through to get food until they’re thin enough.
WTF is Angharad ?!
“ He told Sky News that the plans were not ‘nanny statism’ but a ‘world-first approach’”
_______
As the nanny statists nanny state.
Wait till they run the grocery stores.
The instant I read that, I didn’t have to go any further. I knew the soft-fascist UK government would be involved.
I must be psychic.
Makes sense to me. Over on the South edge of the store I can find the cookies, cakes, bread and deli items. East edge, meat and dairy. And over on the north side is the ice cream against the wall. Entrance is to the west, so the last chance to grab candy is there. In the middle are the canned vegetables and staples and stuff like bottled water.
Momdani in NYC will go a step further and have nothing but empty shelves.
Mandate full length mirrors every five meters.
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