Healthy options called for
Major supermarkets have been urged to make healthy foods cheaper and limit price promotions on junk foods to improve Australian health.
A raft of recommendations from a new Deakin University report on supermarket practices also calls for “much more substantial action” because they are not doing enough to improve population diets.
The 2024 Inside Our Supermarkets report out on Monday finds while Australia’s major four had taken steps to address health and nutrition over the last five years, these still fell “far short of global best practice”.
Lead author Professor Gary Sacks says check-outs are full of chocolates and sugary drinks, end of aisles with halfpriced chips and catalogues dominated by unhealthy junk food. The report’s recommendations for Woolworths, Aldi, Coles and IGA include:
HEALTHY food sales targets with a publicly available annual report on progress;
NO unhealthy products on display near registers;
STOP using cartoon characters and games to appeal to children on unhealthy products and brands;
IN-STORE guides for consumers to buy healthier products such as displaying clear Health Star Ratings.
The report by Deakin University’s Global Centre for Preventive Health and Nutrition is part of the Institute for Health Transformation.
It finds areas of progress since its 2018 report, including three in four had pledged better product formulation on own-brand products and all four committed to better nutrition labelling.
But it flagged most had limited policies and practices dedicated to improving the health food affordability.
“The UK has already legislated for healthy check-outs and is set to ban junk food promotions,” Prof Sacks said. “It shows if supermarkets don’t take action, the government can.”
He said the federal government has a feasibility study underway looking at options to limit unhealthy food marketing to children.