This Is How Unhealthy the Supermarket Is – and It’s Not Getting Any Better
Two years ago, supermarkets promised to promote healthy food more, but absolutely nothing has come of it. That is the conclusion of research by Superlijst. Only Lidl and Ekoplaza come out well, while the rest are a disaster.
Is it the supermarket’s responsibility to make sure everyone eats more healthily? Not entirely, according to the Alliance for Healthy Nutrition for a Healthy Generation. This alliance is a collaboration between the Diabetes Fund, the Heart Foundation, the Dutch Digestive Foundation and the Kidney Foundation. The alliance works together with the Municipality of Amsterdam, UNICEF Netherlands, JOGG and nineteen other health funds. They are committed to a healthy food environment, so that children learn to eat healthily and grow up healthy.
Supermarkets are not the only ones responsible, but they do have a role to play. They can choose to make healthy choices easier. That intention was recorded in the National Prevention Agreement, but after two years it turns out that nothing has come of it.
Fries with mayo every now and then
The Alliance does not want supermarkets to remove all unhealthy food from the shelves. But a little help in getting people to eat more healthily would not hurt. Half of the Dutch population is overweight, and one in six children is overweight. And that is not caused by having fries with mayo every now and then, but by a structurally unhealthy eating pattern.
The National Prevention Agreement contains guidelines for supermarkets. For example, instead of putting chocolate bars and Kinder Surprise eggs at the checkout, they could put something healthy there. Or include more products from the Wheel of Five in their leaflets.
Sweet children’s drinks
Superlijst investigated how supermarkets score on these points, and can compare the results with those of the same study from two years ago. And what do you think? Almost nothing has changed. Once again, all supermarkets have sweets at the checkout, except Dirk.
In the leaflets, 80% of the advertising is for products that fall outside the Wheel of Five – just as it was two years ago. And sweet children’s drinks are promoted extensively. Only Lidl and Ekoplaza have made cautious progress, but they were already frontrunners in this area. Albert Heijn is lagging far behind in particular, Dirk is performing just as it did in 2020, and Coop has also slipped back somewhat.
The list’s conclusion: you cannot leave this up to the supermarket. If they have to regulate it themselves, very little happens. The Alliance is calling for the government to take stricter action.
Image: Albert Heijn/Diederik van der Laan
