Policy, collaborations & research

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Policy, Collaborations and Research

We are committed to being a partner in reducing obesity and promoting healthier choices to our customers. Sainsbury’s has actively engaged with the UK, Scottish and Welsh Governments concerning their respective obesity policies. We welcome the planned advertising regulations and restrictions on multibuys in England. Indeed, we ceased using multibuys as a promotional mechanic on food and soft drink in 2016. We acknowledge that to be effective as business, we need regulations that deliver certainty, a level playing field, and efficiencies across policies and across Government departments) underpinned by effective enforcement. Test and learns can also be an efficient way to build the evidence and model the economic cost: benefit of any proposed regulation, whilst addressing areas of ambiguity.

We support Public Health England’s targets to reduce calories, sugar and salt, and encourage increased fruit and vegetable intakes. Our submissions on Government consultation responses are made publicly available through the relevant Government department’s website.

Our health and sustainability policies can be found in Reports and policies.

We're all on a journey and we need to work together to deliver systems change at scale …

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. Our partnership with Livestock Environment and People (LEAP) in 2018 supported environmental research projects with the University of Oxford. As part of this initiative, we became the first UK supermarket to trial and publish the impact of selling meat-alternative products in meat aisles. Our ongoing Leeds Institute for Data Analytics (LIDA) partnership has enabled us to get a better understanding of customer’s baskets in relation to the Government's Eatwell Guide and to evaluate fruit and vegetable purchasing patterns across the Yorkshire and Humber region. We continue to invest in research to make healthy and sustainable choices easier for customers and have partnered with the IGD and LIDA on their Healthy and Sustainable Diets research projects.

We are part of a multi-disciplinary UKRI Transforming Food Systems collaboration with six UK universities under FIO Food. This 3-year project aims to combine knowledge of large-scale population data with an understanding of the lived experiences of food shopping for people living with obesity and food insecurity, and to co-create solutions to improve sustainable and healthier food choices.

Sainsbury’s are pledgers to the Food Foundation’s Peas Please initiative, which promotes the benefits of vegetables to customers, and also a corporate supporter of Veg Power, a not-for-profit nationwide alliance with a mission to inspire and support kids to have veggie-loving habits they will share with their family today and their own children tomorrow. Veg Power have created award-winning campaigns, including ‘Eat Them to Defeat Them’, a TV advertising campaign which linked with school, local government and catering companies. The 2022 schools’ programme was the biggest and most successful yet, reaching over one million children in primary and special schools.