Stores accused of unhealthy food promotions

The British National Consumer Council (NCC) went into the eight major chains and found that more than half of promotions were for unhealthy foods.

 The NCC
visited eight stores in Sheffield – Asda, Co-op, Marks &
Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Somerfield, Tesco and Waitrose –
to assess how they were encouraging their customers to eat healthily.
But the levels of promotions on unhealthy products had doubled since
2006.
Only 12 per cent of the promotions were for fruit and
vegetables, whereas the NCC recommends a level of 33 per cent.

Morrisons came out the worst culprit, with 63 per cent of its
promotions featuring sugary and fatty foods, compared to 39 per cent
in 2006.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said the survey,
which was carried out in March, uses “misleading comparisons”
based on a “one-off snapshot of promotions”.
The body claims
the NCC has ignored the fact that promotions are balanced across the
year. Fruit and vegetables are promoted all year but more heavily in
spring and summer when supplies are more plentiful, while ‘treat’
food promotions are more common at Easter and Christmas, said the
BRC. But the NCC said Easter promotions had been left out of its
report.