Fruit and ‘free from’ foods lead sales growth

FRESH fruit and “free from” products are the year’s fastestgrowing grocery items as Britons embrace healthy eating, figures show.

Shoppers in the UK spent £175.6 million more on fresh fruit this year than they did last year, while sales of “free from” products increased by £122.9m or 18.9 per cent, according to Nielsen’s annual analysis of supermarket till sales.

The growth of “free from” means it is worth £772.2m a year and has now become a bigger category than tea.

Sparkling wine is the only other category to see sales rise by more than £100m this year, at £101.9m or 15.5 per cent.

Bottled water was the fourth fastest-growing category, seeing a sales increase of £81.9m to take it past the £1 billion mark.