Our ambition

In 2021, we set out our plans to help customers eat more healthily. This includes a target to increase sales of healthy products (as defined by the Government’s nutrient profiling model) to 65% of total sales by 2025.

We have also set ourselves a target to remove 100 billion calories by 2025. By being transparent in how we’re doing against our healthy products target, we and others in the industry can learn what works when it comes to promoting healthier diets. Setting a clear target and measuring our progress helps us to identify the impact of the changes we’re making.

We are also using Clubcard data to understand what drives healthier purchases. This data allows us to have more informed conversations with our suppliers to encourage reformulation and innovation, and inspire similar commitments. It also enables us to measure progress where we know where changes will have the biggest impact.

Little Helps For Healthier Diets ReportDownload the report

Key numbers for healthier lifestyles

66%

58%

1/3

of our customers say that cost is a reason they don’t eat more healthily.

More than half of our customers tell us eating healthily can take too much time and effort.

Only a third of adults and just 12% of 11–18-year-olds manage to get their 5-a-day.

Performance against our target

 

We started from a baseline of 58% and we report on progress against this annually. By the end of last year, we had reached 63%. Today, 3.3 million people are purchasing 10% more healthy products in 2022 compared to 2021.

We’ve rolled out our Better Baskets campaign in the UK, in the vast majority of our stores and online. Better Baskets zones helped customers switch to healthier products and drove a 12% increase in volumes of these products.

7 Tesco methodology sustainable diets uk

Health

Better Baskets

Customers tell us they want to feel better about the food they buy, the meals they make, and the packaging they use. So we launched Better Baskets as an easy way for customers to fill their basket with better choices every time they shop. Our Better Basket zones make it easy for customers to spot better choices throughout their shopping trip, by signposting foods high in fibre, plant-based options and food under 100 calories.

 

Related News

“I am proud of the work we have done. From investing in reformulation across thousands of own-brand products, removing more than 71 billion calories to date, rolling out permanent Better Baskets zones, to partnering with some of the UK’s leading health partners. We are pressing ahead to make positive change when legislation to encourage healthier choices has faltered.”

- Ken Murphy, Group Chief Executive, Tesco

Our healthy diets journey so far

  1. Launched our first healthy living range and became the first retailer to provide nutrition information on product labels.

  2. Removed chocolates and sweets from the checkouts at our larger stores.

  3. The first UK retailer to put nutrition information on the front of packs, based on Guideline Daily Amounts.

  4. Stopped the use of hydrogenated fats and oils in our own-brand products following public health concern about trans fatty acids.

  5. Updated our front of pack nutrition information to include traffic light labelling.

  6. Began our partnership with the British Heart Foundation, working at a national and regional level to provide defibrillators across our stores.

  7. Removed sweets, chocolate and kids’ sugary drinks from checkouts in all stores, including Express, after 67% of parents told us that having no confectionery near the checkout would help them make healthier choices for their children.

  8. Became the first retailer to reduce sugar in our own-brand drinks to below the level of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy, ahead of its introduction in 2018.

  9. ‘Free Fruit for Kids’ started. Since then, we have given away over 100 million pieces of fruit.

  10. ‘Helpful Little Swaps’ launched to encourage customers to try healthier alternatives to family favourites at the same price.

  11. Since 2018 we have removed 71 billion calories from food without compromising taste and will reduce another 50 billion by 2024.

  12. We launched ‘Fresh 5’ – fantastic offers on 5 lines of fresh fruit and veg, which change every two weeks.

  13. Set a target to increase sales of healthy products as a proportion of total sales to 65% by 2025.

  14. In partnership with WWF, we launched the ‘Sustainable Basket’ metric to understand the environmental impact of popular food items.

  15. Introduced Better Baskets zones in stores and removed volume-led promotions on products covered by proposed HFSS regulation, despite government delays.

  16. Introduced our ‘Let’s Talk’ pharmacy programme with our health charity partners.

  17. Tesco announced we will continue with our voluntary commitment not to sell HFSS products through volume-led promotions, as part of ongoing plans to help customers eat more healthily.

  18. Published our ‘Little helps for heathier diets’ report on progress against our healthy diets strategy, developed in partnership with the British Nutrition Foundation.