Committee publication · Correspondence · 25 March 2026
Correspondence from Sainsbury’s- Follow up from 28 Jan session
From: Health and Social Care Committee
Inquiry: Food and Weight Management
Summary
Sainsbury's provided supplementary evidence to the Health and Social Care Committee's food and weight management inquiry, following its 28 January 2025 oral session. The letter details the retailer's approach to healthy eating, including its 'Healthy and Better for You' classification system, investments in affordability, trials on choice architecture, and policy recommendations. Sainsbury's reports 81.9% of sales are classified as healthy (target 85%) and committed to increasing bean and pulse sales by 2028.
Key findings
- Sainsbury's has invested £1 billion over four years to keep healthy food affordable, including Aldi Price Match (75% of items are healthy) and Nectar loyalty incentives.
- The retailer's 'Healthy and Better for You' criteria—developed in 2020 using Public Health England reformulation targets, traffic light labelling, and Eatwell Guide alignment—currently classifies 81.9% of sales as healthy against an 85% target.
- Sainsbury's has run 12+ independently evaluated food environment trials since 2017, finding that incentivisation and reward tactics drive the most meaningful behavioural change; choice editing and shelf placement showed limited effect.
- Sugar tonnage has been reduced 35% since 2015 in top five sugar categories, exceeding 2025/26 government targets. Partnership with Comic Relief has raised £26 million and donated 60 million meals since 2022.
- Sainsbury's calls for mandatory health reporting across all food businesses, extension of HFSS regulations to restaurants and cafés (covering ~1/3 of food currently exempt), proper enforcement funding for Trading Standards, and a national cooking skills initiative.
Tone
SupportiveTopics
Key actors
Sainsbury's, Health and Social Care Committee, Ms Moran, Greg Stafford MP, Danny Beales MP, Comic Relief, Department for Education, Public Health England
Notable line
“We need everyone to play their part to create the change we need at scale.”
Key Quotes
“Last year, 88% of our own brand sales tonnage was a healthy or better for you product.”
“Currently, 81.9% of total sales are Healthy and Better for You products, against a target of 85%.”
“So far, our work supports the existing evidence base that incentivisation and reward tactics drive the most meaningful changes.”
“The average customer interacts with over 4 different retailers every week to buy their food and that includes takeaways, pubs, coffee shops and convenience stores.”
“A significant proportion of the food environment is not captured in the existing HFSS placement restrictions (around 1/3 of food is exempt from the restrictions)”
“Since the programme launched in 2022, we have raised over £26 million and donated 60 million meals to help tackle food poverty and support some of the most disadvantaged communities in the country.”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗