1 August, 2025

Two credible voices, Feedback and The Food Foundation, released a quietly damning report on UK supermarkets’ sustainability commitments a couple of months ago. It’s detailed, data-rich, and sobering. And yet, so far, it’s barely made a ripple. 

Over the past decade, the UK’s ten biggest supermarkets have made more than 600 pledges on climate and healthy diets. But progress is patchy at best. Many commitments are vague, inconsistently measured, and often go unreported. For example, only four retailers are reporting UK-specific Scope 3 emissions. That’s despite them accounting for around 90% of the average retailer’s carbon footprint and most supermarkets having reduction targets in place. 

It’s a similar story on healthy and sustainable diets. Retailers continue to push high fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) products, and while 57 commitments were made to improve diets, less than half include measurable targets. And as we’ve said before, without precise, focused and relevant targets, it’s very hard for stakeholders to understand what a business is committing to, and equally hard for a business to ensure it is moving in the right direction.  

The report’s headline recommendation is to mandate standardised reporting: consistent metrics, shared baselines, and clearer definitions of what counts as credible action. But it’s also clear-eyed about the limits of disclosure. Standardised reporting may help track progress, but it won’t compel it. Without enforcement, it risks becoming a system that’s technically transparent but potentially toothless. We recently wrote about the UK government’s plans to introduce mandatory health food sales reporting for large food companies, which represents an encouraging step towards this. 

Now that this review is out, the spotlight turns to the retailers. How they respond will show whether these pledges are the foundation for meaningful progress or in need of a serious rethink. It’s also a prompt to government and regulators: voluntary action has taken us some of the way, but not far or fast enough – and now we have the research to back that up. 

By Budd Nicholson