Our thinking

What the health?

12 March, 2021

Tesco came under fire last year from the Access to Nutrition Initiative, a charity campaigning for healthier foods. The charity ranked M&S and Sainsbury’s ahead of Tesco when it came to offering healthy foods and product ingredients.

More recently, Tesco’s has been accused of making the UK’s obesity crisis worse. Just in time, it seems, Tesco has set new healthy food targets after an anti-obesity campaign by ShareAction kicked it into gear.

Tesco aims to increase its healthy product range from 58% to 65% of total sales by 2025, whilst quadrupling its sales of plant-based meat alternatives. This will have the combined effect of reducing carbon emissions and improving customers’ health.

What struck us about all this is that many large companies seem sold on the need to reduce their emissions and are embracing net zero targets. But it’s much less common for companies to set targets around public health. It doesn’t help that there isn’t a clear, universally relevant set of metrics or a standout target, as there is for carbon emissions. But that in itself doesn’t explain why health takes such a back seat when it comes to commitments to action.

There is a link between obesity and the severity of symptoms among people who contract Covid. So, if we’re going to prevent future pandemics, the health of the public will be an important part of our ability to withstand new infections. All of which means that, while there’s still a long way to go, Tesco is setting an important example for its competitors and the food industry at large. Focusing on planet health also needs include human health.

By Cara McEvoy