25 April 2012

Report Criticises Supermarkets For Continuing To Display Sweets At The Checkout

The Children's Food Campaign (CFC) have accused supermarkets of undermining parents' efforts to feed children healthily by displaying junk food near checkout queues.

Following research carried out at hundreds of checkouts at 48 stores in London the CFC said most high street supermarkets still place snacks near tills despite promising a decade ago to reduce or remove them.

The authors of the report, Checkouts Checked Out, say they found that in many cases, junk food was positioned at children's eye level, prompting them to pester for sweets, crisps and soft drinks.

Unhealthy snacks were found at four out of five checkouts at the Asda, Morrisons and Iceland stores they visited.

Co-op, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose were all criticised for making families queue past shelves of sweets and snacks to get to the tills.

The authors also said they were disturbed that non-food retailers such as HMV, New Look, Superdrug and WH Smith were featuring sweets and chocolates in the queuing area.

They also said that none of the traditional format supermarkets they visited had any healthy food options promoted at their checkouts, and that it was impossible to avoid junk food at the checkouts of the compact high street stores.

They did, however, praise Waitrose for the fresh fruit displays near the tills at its flagship Oxford Street store.

The Children's Food Campaign wants junk food removed from tills in all types of store and says the government should make this a key public health initiative, even widening the remit of the Advertising Standards Authority to include the positioning of unhealthy products.

Report author Sophie Durham said: "Impulse purchases at the checkout can add several hundred unplanned calories to a family shopping basket.

"Supermarkets claim to be responsible retailers, yet they continue to put their profits ahead of families' health."

(H)