Speeches by Coleman.

“Did you lobby on the Less Healthy advertising regulations or the statutory instrument?”

“That’s fine. I think this is quite an important question. You have talked about your own products, but the control on branded products is less than on your own products, and you are all, with the possible exception of Aldi—from the research that we have done—moving towards a very intensive retail media push, and there …”

“But you have a financial incentive to take whichever brand pays you most, regardless of its nutritional content.”

“In your own-brand communications. Is that the same for all of you? You are all moving—”

“Okay, last question. The Less Healthy advertising regulations came into force. A statutory instrument was laid to exempt brand advertising from the legislation. Did any of you or your companies lobby against these regulations or in favour of the new statutory instrument? If you didn’t, did the trade association of whic…”

“Fair enough.”

“Take Asda first. If you advertise particular food and drink products, does it increase their consumption?”

“You do not have data on that. As an expert of many years in the industry, you are not clear in your own mind whether it does or not.”

“Simply to understand the guidance. Beth?”

“On this issue?”

“I am not quite clear on how it works. I went on to Tesco’s website, and I looked at the chicken masala. You have your basic chicken masala, and you then have your Finest chicken masala, and there is £1 difference in price—the basic is £3.85 and the Finest is £4.85. The cheaper one has slightly less chicken—it is 18% ve…”

“I get that, but you have your Finest range, and it is the “finest”. If we look at your RAG rating, it is red for fat, saturates and salt. It is even worse with your basic rating, as it is high in fat, saturates and salt, and it is medium in sugars. Can somebody explain to me why we need palm oil and so much salt in pro…”

“At the same price?”

“Two of you are nutritionists. When you add salt and palm oil to food, why does it enable you to bring the price down?”

“Thank you all for coming. I would like to focus a little more on the affordability of healthy food. The Government have the Healthy Start scheme to support pregnant women and low-income families with small children. At one point, Sainsbury’s offered a £2 extra top-up to that scheme; have you stopped doing that?”

“I appreciate that, but that is a general comment. Would you look at it if it was made more accessible?”

“Thank you very much. We have this whole problem, as you can see. We are focusing on one aspect of affordability, but how can we make healthy food more accessible? What are you doing to make your basic ranges more accessible, in terms of both where they are sold and the price they are offered at? Maybe we could start wi…”

“But it is products all over. If you read Chris van Tulleken’s book, it is very clear about the range of products that it is all added to.”

“Good. The frustration of the Committee is that, when we are all here, we all have lots of questions. That is nice for you, because we do not drive as deeply as we might otherwise do. I am going to need to move on to something about advertising. Does the advertising of food and drink products increase the consumption of…”

“Did you speak to the Government on this issue? Sorry, but it’s—”