Junk food getting special treatment
SUPERMARKET specials are favouring junk foods with deeper discounts on unhealthy items more often, research shows.
Chocolates, chips and sugary cereals are most frequently on discount.
It comes as the UK moves to restrict price promotions on food high in fat, sugar and salt.
Deakin University research showed discretionary foods were on price promotion almost twice as often as healthier packaged foods.
The magnitude of discounts was also far greater.
Associate Professor Adrian Cameron, who completed the study, said: “We know that price is the biggest driver of what people buy and if discounts are heavily weighted towards unhealthy foods then it doesn’t surprise anyone that’s going to have a big impact.”
The supermarket prices of more than 1500 items were monitored over a year as part of the study, published in the American Journal of Public Health.
Almost a third of discretionary foods were typically on price promotion, compared with 15 per cent of healthier foods. A whopping 40 per cent of chocolate was typically on discount, a third of chips and close to a quarter of high-sugar cereals and ice cream.
The magnitude of discounts, which also included multi-buys, averaged 26 per cent for discretionary foods, compared with 15 per cent for healthier foods.
Chocolate, high-sugar breakfast cereals, ice cream and chips had the steepest discounts.
The smallest were for packaged bread, frozen vegetables, frozen fruit, canned beans, legumes and tomatoes.
Items with lower health star ratings were most frequently on promotion and had the biggest average discounts.
A Woolworths spokesman said: “We do offer great specials on foods we know Australians like to enjoy from time to time.
“At the same time, we’re doing a lot to make healthier choices easier and more affordable for our customers, particularly around the nutritional profile of own-brand products.”
This included permanently lowering the price of more than 200 healthier items and removing salt, fat and sugar from more than 350 products.