Research into supermarket health: which supermarket scores best?
Fact of life: never do your grocery shopping when you’re peckish or hungry, because you’re guaranteed to come home with junk. Another fact of life: you should avoid certain routes through the supermarket if you want to make healthy choices. Checkout deals? Leave them alone! Yes, the supermarket is a jungle full of temptations – and you’re constantly being conned. So if you want to make healthy choices, which supermarket is the healthiest?
Superlijst Gezondheid
That is the question Questionmark is asking for the third time this year. In its ‘Superlijst Gezondheid’ study, Questionmark examines and compares how the major supermarket chains Aldi, Albert Heijn, Dirk, Ekoplaza, Jumbo, Lidl and Plus help their customers eat healthily and make healthy food the easy choice.
Unhealthy products on promotion
Rocket science it isn’t, but it is an obvious conclusion: previous editions of Superlijst Gezondheid – the latest was published in 2022 – showed that more than 80% of supermarket promotions consist of unhealthy products. Unhealthy products can be produced on a larger scale and therefore at lower cost.
So naturally, customers aren’t encouraged to make good choices. Besides, healthy products are generally much more expensive. Add inflation, shrinkflation and all the other factors that have made groceries much more expensive in recent years, and you understand why people often end up choosing cheap, unhealthy options.
Ekoplaza and Lidl performed best, followed by Dirk in the middle of the pack. Aldi, Jumbo, Coop, Albert Heijn and Plus lagged behind.
New ranking in the works
Questionmark’s key question: have supermarkets now begun making substantial improvements to their policies, product ranges, promotions and store layouts to help their customers choose more healthy and less unhealthy options?
Questionmark will publish the report with the ranking in November 2024. We’ll keep an eye on it. For now: good luck in the jungle that is the supermarket. Keep your back straight and your head cool. You can do it, tiger!
Also read:
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