Better for you

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Ways we are encouraging healthy and sustainable choices

We know that our food environment can have a huge influence on the food choices we might make. And, whilst there are many behavioural frameworks to help inform health trials in retailing environments, nothing beats testing these ideas in real-world settings, where so many different factors might be at play and influencing our purchasing patterns.

That’s why since 2017 we’ve been running food environment trials to help us test the real-world impacts of a wide variety of health interventions and learn what methods will really shift the dial. We’ve partnered with Oxford University, the Consumer Goods Forum, Institute of Grocery Distribution and the Leeds Institute for Data Analytics to independently run and evaluate the impacts of these trials. This includes:

We publish our findings so others across the industry can learn from them and help drive positive change throughout the whole food environment. You can find the full publications at the bottom of this page.

 

Our Healthy Choice logo

Wherever you see our Healthy Choice logo, you can be sure you are choosing a product that supports a balanced diet.

Our Healthy Choice logo is here to make it easier for you to shop for healthy options. Look for it across a variety of product categories to quickly spot options that support a balanced diet. Wherever you see the logo, you’ll also find the nutrient or dietary benefit the product delivers.

The criteria behind the logo have been carefully developed by our nutritionists and dietitians to help you identify the better options within a food category, and is in line with the UK’s dietary guidelines for health – known as the Eatwell Guide. The badge will help you identify the Healthy Choice across everyday scratch cook staples like fruits and vegetables, wholegrain starchy carbohydrates, pulses, lentils, lean meats, fish, and low fat dairy or alternatives. In addition, we’ve also identified products in convenience categories like ready meals, sandwiches, meal sides, breakfast options and snacks.

You can be sure when choosing a Healthy Choice product it:

1. Has no red traffic lights*

2. Must be compliant with the Government’s calorie, sugar and salt reduction targets

3. Must contain a relevant nutrition and associated health claim

4. Be non-High Fat Sugar Salt (HFSS) if subject to the placement regulations**

5. Meets the 5 a day requirement for fruit and veg (where relevant)

*Except where naturally occurring in certain categories; e.g. dried fruit and sugar.
**We only apply this rule to in scope products because there are many healthy products which are naturally HFSS which are recommended to include as part of a balanced diet e.g. oily fish.


Look out for the logo on Sainsbury’s products in store, online and through Nectar.

Case studies

Safeguarding funds for vulnerable communities

1. In 2021, 2022 and 2023 we supplemented the Government Healthy Start voucher scheme with an extra £2 towards fruit & veg1,2.

2. In 2024 we gave certain customer groups money off and/or extra Nectar point vouchers to redeem against healthy products including yoghurts and fruit & veg.

3. We've worked with The Bread & Butter Thing, a community-led network of food clubs across the North of England in areas where deprivation can be especially high, to distribute free herbs and seasoning to members.

 

1 Thomas, M, Moore, J.B, Onuselogu, D.A, Dalton, A, Rains, T, Lowry, E, Sritharan, N & Morris, M.A, July 2023, "Supermarket top-up of Healthy Start vouchers increases fruit and vegetable purchases in low-income households", Nutrition Bulletin, vol. 48, no. 3, pp. 353-364. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1111/nbu.12627

2 IGD 2022, Healthy sustainable diets: Driving change Oct 2022. Available from: https://www.igd.com/Social-Impact/Health/Reports/Healthy-sustainable-diets-Driving-change-Oct-2022/38667

We regularly run initiatives that help to make healthy food affordable for everyone:
1. At least 75% of products are matched to Aldi are healthier options. Our 2023 campaign aimed to improve diversity and balance of our offer relative to the Eatwell Guide, including wholewheat pasta, brown rice and tinned salmon.

2. At Christmas and Easter we’ve been offering seasonal veg for just 15-19p.

3. We’ve introduced multibuys on ‘healthy’ products such as running 3 for 2 promotions on frozen fruit and vegetables.

4. We aim to optimise ‘Your Nectar Prices’ and ‘Sainsbury’s offers’ for healthier foods we think customers will like best.


We've also run trials with IGD to evaluate the impact of discounting a range of less commonly purchased fruit and vegetables to just 60p, providing our customers with the value and encouragement to try something new3.

 

3 IGD 2021, Healthy, sustainable diets: Driving change. Available from: https://www.igd.com/Social-Impact/Health/Reports/Healthy-sustainable-diets-Driving-change/35613

1. We've been running our annual Great Fruit & Veg Challenge since 2018, rewarding customers with Nectar points for buying more fruit and veg portions4.


2. We offered Disney collectible cards when spending over £10 on certain healthy snack products, including fruit and lower sugar baked beans. increasing the sales of these by 387% and 72% respectively5.

 

4 Stewart, E., Jenneson, V., Tempest, B., Walker, T. & Evans, C. 2022, "The impact of a supermarket-based intervention using personalised loyalty card incentives to increase weekly purchasing of fruits and vegetables", Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, vol. 81, no. OCE5, pp. E183. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0029665122002166

5 Consumer Goods Forum Can supermarkets help turn the tide on obesity? Available from: https://www.theconsumergoodsforum.com/wp-content/uploads/202010-chl-uk-can-supermarkets-help-turn-the-tide-on-obesity.pdf

1. We trialled increasing availability of lower calorie biscuits & moving healthier cereals to be at eye level but we didn't see any significant differences in what customers bought5.

2. We’ve offered healthier alternatives as recommendations when shopping online which resulted in an increase in healthier products added to baskets.

3. We trialled renaming our café main meals to encourage plant-based choices and learnt that focusing names on provenance and flavour plus the look and feel of meals encouraged more diners to go plant-based6.

4. We trialled a new fixture to encourage ‘Better for You’ crisp choices as part of the lunchtime meal deal7.

 

5. We are one of four retailers working with IGD and the University of Leeds to evaluate the impact of the Government regulations to restrict the placement of selected HFSS products.

 

5 Consumer Goods Forum Can supermarkets help turn the tide on obesity? Available from https://www.theconsumergoodsforum.com/wp-content/uploads/202010-chl-uk-can-supermarkets-help-turn-the-tide-on-obesity.pdf.

6 Wise, J. & Vennard, D. 2019, "It’s All in a Name: How to Boost the Sales of Plant-Based Menu Items". Available from https://www.wri.org/insights/its-all-name-how-boost-sales-plant-based-menu-items

7 IGD Healthy sustainable diets: driving change Aug 2024 (igd.com)
Diet and Health Inequalities (DIO Food) | The Rowett Institute | The University of Aberdeen (abdn.ac.uk))

Our ongoing development programme ensures we continue to improve the nutrient profile of our products while making sure we never compromise on quality or taste for our customers. We fully support Public Health England’s targets to reduce calories, sugar and salt and since 2015, we have achieved over 20% sugar tonnage reduction, from categories contributing most to children’s sugar intake. 84% of our own brand products meet the 2024 maximum PHE salt targets and 93% of our own brand products meet the PHE maximum calorie per portion target.

We have reformulated several of our own brand ranges to become non-HFSS.

In 2022 we launched our Flourish range, developed as a positive approach to health, created alongside chefs and nutritionists. The range is all about delicious food with healthy ingredients that support a balanced diet.

1. We’ve used banners online to promote healthier versions of products and created recipe bundles containing healthier alternatives such as wholewheat pasta or lower fat mince8.


2. We’ve used advertising campaigns to encourage plant-rich choices such as during our 2021 ‘Try Your Halfest’ campaign. Encouraging customers to add pulses to meat-based dishes to make them go further, add an extra portion of veg and reduce their meat consumption as you can see in the images below9.

 

 

8 Bunten, A, Shute, B, Golding, S, Charlton, C, Porter, L, Willis, Z, Gold, N, Saei, A, Tempest, B, Sritharan, N, Arambepola, R, Yau, A. & Chadborn, T. 2022, "Encouraging healthier grocery purchases online: A randomised controlled trial and lessons learned", Nutrition Bulletin, vol. 47. Available from: 10.1111/nbu.12552

9 Watch our ‘Try your Halfest’ ad campaign here, https://wklondon.com/2021/10/eat-better-with-sainsburys/

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Links to full publications:
 - Consumer Goods Forum “Can supermarkets help turn the tide on obesity?”. Available from: https://www.theconsumergoodsforum.com/wp-content/uploads/202010-chl-uk-can-supermarkets-help-turn-the-tide-on-obesity.pdf

- Hartmann-Boyce J, Bianchi F, Piernas C, et al (2018). “Grocery store interventions to change food purchasing behaviours: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials”. Am J Clin Nutr. 2018;107(6):1004-1016. Available from:10.1093/ajcn/nqy045 

- Clark, S. et al. (2020) “Compliance with the Eatwell guide: a case study using supermarket transaction records in Yorkshire and the Humber”, Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 79(OCE2), p. E665. Available from:10.1017/S002966512000614X.

- Jenneson, Victoria & Shute, Becky & Greenwood, Darren & Clarke, Graham & Clark, Stephen & Rains, Tim & Morris, Michelle. (2020). “Variation in fruit and vegetable purchasing patterns in Leeds: using novel loyalty card transaction data”. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society. Available from: S0029665120006199.

- IGD (2021) “Healthy, sustainable diets: Driving change”. Available from: https://www.igd.com/Social-Impact/Health/Reports/Healthy-sustainable-diets-Driving-change/35613

- Jenneson V, Clarke GP, Greenwood DC, Shute B, Tempest B, Rains T, Morris MA. (2021) “Exploring the Geographic Variation in Fruit and Vegetable Purchasing Behaviour Using Supermarket Transaction Data”. Nutrients. Available from: 10.3390/nu14010177

- Clark SD, Shute B, Jenneson V, Rains T, Birkin M, Morris MA. (2021) “Dietary Patterns Derived from UK Supermarket Transaction Data with Nutrient and Socioeconomic Profiles”. Nutrients. Available from: 10.3390/nu13051481

- IGD (2022), “Healthy sustainable diets: Driving change”  Available from: https://www.igd.com/Social-Impact/Health/Reports/Healthy-sustainable-diets-Driving-change-Oct-2022/38667

- Stewart, E., Jenneson, V., Tempest, B., Walker, T. & Evans, C. (2022), "The impact of a supermarket-based intervention using personalised loyalty card incentives to increase weekly purchasing of fruits and vegetables", Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, vol. 81, no. OCE5, pp. E183. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0029665122002166

- Bunten, A, Shute, B, Golding, S, Charlton et al (2022) "Encouraging healthier grocery purchases online: A randomised controlled trial and lessons learned", Nutrition Bulletin,vol. 47. Available from: 10.1111/nbu.12552

- Victoria L Jenneson, Francesca Pontin, Darren C Greenwood, Graham P Clarke, Michelle A Morris, (2022) “A systematic review of supermarket automated electronic sales data for population dietary surveillance”, Nutrition Reviews, Volume 80, Issue 6, Available from:  https://doi.org/10.1093/nutrit/nuab089

- Thomas, M, Moore, J.B, Onuselogu, D.A, Dalton, A, Rains, T, Lowry, E, Sritharan, N & Morris, M.A, (2023), "Supermarket top-up of Healthy Start vouchers increases fruit and vegetable purchases in low-income households", Nutrition Bulletin,vol. 48, no. 3, pp. 353-364. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1111/nbu.12627

- Diet and Health Inequalities (DIO Food) | The Rowett Institute | The University of Aberdeen (abdn.ac.uk)

- Food Insecurity in people living with Obesity (FIO Food) | The Rowett Institute | The University of Aberdeen (abdn.ac.uk)