Better for you

Better for you

Better for you

We are committed to providing access to affordable, nutritious, diverse, food to help make future generations and our planet healthier for longer. We believe everyone should enjoy good food and we aim to help our customers achieve healthier, more sustainable dietary shifts by unlocking barriers and, through collaboration, driving systems level change.

Good food for all of us

“Sainsbury’s makes eating well affordable, easy and tasty. We want to provide good food for all customers, ensuring everyone has access to nutritious, homecooked and sustainable food.”

Our progress so far


We track the proportion of sales which are Healthy and Better For You and progress towards the UK government’s recommended diet by measuring total basket shifts relative to the Eatwell Guide.

The food choices we make has a significant impact on our health and the health of our planet. Current practices have led to food production being the single largest source of environmental change1,2. Many of the risks we are seeing from global warming to loss of biodiversity, pollution of waterways, deforestation and land degradation are associated with the unsustainable production of food. We also need to produce food 56% more food by 2050 to feed an estimated population of nearly 10 billion people3, we can’t carry on the way things are.

We are serious about our responsibility to help our customers eat healthily. For us, this means helping more customers achieve a plant-rich diet that is in line with the government’s Eatwell Guide.

Combine this with government statistics that show 2 in 3 UK adults are overweight or obese there is an opportunity to make a significant impact by changing our diets. 1 in 5 of our customers* on average consider health factors (e.g. sugar/salt/fat/calorie content) when purchasing groceries, and 62% of our customers said they would like their diets to be sustainable4. However, we are all on a journey and we know it can be confusing to know what is both a healthy and sustainable choice, so we really do need to work together to help one another eat that little bit better every day. 

We want our customers to feel in control of both their health and also their impact on the planet, through small steps towards a significant change in eating behaviours, without compromising on taste or enjoyability. We want to help and encourage customers to make food choices that are both better for them, and better for the planet.  

That’s why our North Star goal is to support more of our customers to eat in line with the Eatwell Guide by 2030.

Source: The Eatwell Guide - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The Eatwell Guide is the UK Government’s dietary recommendations. It is made up of the five key food groups and the proportions the diet should be made up of these foods to meet nutritional recommendations and applies to most people from the ages of 2 years upwards.

Research has shown that eating in line with the Eatwell Guide, can positively impact our health as well as our planet’s6. Compared to typical diets today, eating in line with the UK’s dietary guidelines - The Eatwell Guide - have been shown to deliver: 

Source: BDA. One Blue Dot6

A key priority for our business is to develop and deliver healthy and sustainable diets for all and provide customers with the information, incentives and rewards to help them make better choices for themselves and for the planet.

Find out more:
- Our ambition & strategy
- How we’re encouraging healthier choices
- Progress we’re making towards our North Star

We have a long history of providing good food for all of us and have been working to implement health policies and reformulate our own-brand products for over 30 years.

We are providing good food for all of us by making it easier and more accessible for customers to make food choices that are good for them and the planet. 

References:
1. The Carbon Trust. The Eatwell Guide: a more sustainable diet: methodology and results summary. 2016 (online). Available at: https://www.carbontrust.com/our-work-and-impact/guides-reports-and-tools/the-eatwell-guide-a-more-sustainable-diet [Accessed May 2023].
2. Scheelbeek P, Green R, Papier K, et al. Health impacts and environmental footprints of diets that meet the Eatwell Guide recommendations: analyses of multiple UK studies. BMJ Open 2020;10:e037554. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2020-037554
3. World Resources Institute. How to Sustainably Feed 10 Billion People by 2050, in 21 Charts. 2018 (online). Available at: How to Sustainably Feed 10 Billion People by 2050, in 21 Charts | World Resources Institute (wri.org) [Accessed June 2024].
4. Sainsbury's x Savanta Health. Say:Do Gap. 2023 (unpublished).
5. Gov.uk. The Eatwell Guide. 2024 (online). Available at: The Eatwell Guide - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). [Accessed June 2024].
6. British Dietetic Association. One Blue Dot: Eating patterns for healthy and environmental sustainability – a reference guide for dietitians. 2020 (online). Available at: https://www.bda.uk.com/resource/one-blue-dot.html [Accessed May 2023].
7. Nation Food Strategy. The National Food Strategy. 2021 (online). Available at: The National Food Strategy - The Plan. [Accessed June 2024].
8. WRAP.WRAP launches new data stories platform which explores household food waste research in an innovative way. 2024 (online). Available at: WRAP launches new data stories platform which explores household food waste research in an innovative way | WRAP [Accessed June 2024].

*Sample: Nectar Card Holders, Nat Rep Sainsburys Primary Customers n = 2991.

Our approach

A key priority for our business is to offer our customers great value, healthy food that is produced sustainably. We will provide customers with the products, promotions and propositions that encourage them to make food choices that are both better for themselves and for the planet. We have set a target to grow the proportion of Healthy and Better for you sales and we are tracking and disclosing progress publicly. 

Our commitment:

At least 85% Healthy and Better for you sales tonnage sold by 2025

We recognise that this will be a journey and that we need to test and learn how we best transition customers’ baskets towards healthier choices in the longer term. We will continue working with external partners to evaluate and publish the findings of this work so that others in the food system can learn with us.

Read more on our ambition & strategy

The global food system is responsible for 25-30% of Greenhouse gas emissions (GHGEs), contributing to climate change, deforestation, water scarcity and biodiversity lossTo continue to feed more and more people we need to evolve our food system to produce food within our planetary boundaries and make dietary shifts which will have significant impacts on climate change. 

Read more about our sustainable dietary choices

 

We know that UK diets are, on average, too high in energy, salt, sugar and fat, and lacking in vegetables, fruit and fibre1. This is why we support Public Health England’s targets to reduce calories, sugar and salt, at the same time as encouraging increased fruit and vegetable intakes in line with the Eatwell Guide.

Our healthy and sustainable diets plan covers four main areas: 

  1. Affordability
  2. Availability
  3. Rewards and Incentives
  4. Awareness


We have embedded nutrition benchmarking into our product development gate processes, making it an integral part of our ways of working. For example, in the last year, we have reformulated our pre-packed Taste the Difference hot cross bun range to be non-HFSS, and we’ve removed 58 tonnes of saturated fat from our Taste the Difference sausages.

Read more about how we are encouraging healthy choices

As part of our Plan for Better strategy and our commitment to develop and deliver healthy and sustainable diets for all, we have clearly defined what we are measuring and, where applicable, have set targets to deliver our strategy. We report twice yearly on our target to achieve at least 85% Healthy and Better for you sales tonnage (including own brand and branded) as a proportion of total sales by 2025.

In addition, we report on a range of additional health disclosures, including the balance of food groups in a typical basket for our primary shoppers relative to the UK’s dietary guidelines. We also provide information on our definition of a healthier choice and our disclosures on total sales versus the UK nutrient profiling model (also known as non-HFSS sales) as an alternative definition of health. Sainsbury’s was recognised as the only food business to report on all three of the Food Foundation’s healthy sustainable diet metrics in their report in October 2022.

You can read more about our criteria for defining Healthy and Better for you and see our progress in the Tracking progress section.

Read more about tracking progress

We use ‘test and learn’ initiatives to trial different approaches when providing customers with information and incentives to support them to make healthier choices. More information on our trials are publicly available through the scientific literature and reports from our partnerships with the Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD) and the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF). These include examples of our trials on pricing, placement and incentives.

Read more on our Case Studies

 

Sainsbury’s work with key partners, such as charities, academic institutions and organisations that are advancing our scientific knowledge, communication and education around healthy and sustainable diets. We are committed to being a partner in reducing obesity and promoting healthier choices to our customers and have actively engaged with the UK, Scottish and Welsh Governments concerning their respective obesity policies. We are fully transparent in our memberships and collaborations.

Read more on our Policies, collaborations & research

Our stories