Governments are being urged to align food taxes with public health goals after new research found supermarket shoppers are forced to pay a premium for healthy baskets.

The non-profit Access to Nutrition initiative (ATNi) compared the cost of healthy and less healthy baskets from retailers in six countries: US, France, Indonesia, South Africa, the Philippines, and Kenya.

They found healthier food baskets were consistently more expensive, with cost differences ranging from 10.8% to 60.6%. For the purpose of the analysis, healthier baskets were based on reference food groups and recommended intakes from the 2019 EAT-Lancet reference diet.

The greatest and smallest cost disparities between healthier and less healthy baskets were recorded at Robinsons Supermarket in the Philippines and Indomaret in Indonesia, respectively.

The research identified a large affordability gap for healthy food, particularly in lower- and middle-income countries where the cost of healthier baskets accounted for 53% to 154% of daily per capita gross national income.

ATNi said the findings highlighted the need for fiscal measures that align food tax rates with public health goals, and other policies that reduce the affordability gap and promote equitable access to healthier diets.

Although the UK wasn’t part of the study, research from earlier this year by The Food Foundation found that healthier foods are more than twice as expensive per calorie than less healthy foods, as well as being less available.

In its 10 year health plan for England, the UK Government announced that in future large food businesses will be required to report publicly on the healthiness of their food sales and meet future targets.

Speaking with Footprint following the announcement, ATNi executive director Greg Garrett welcomed the plan for mandatory reporting and noted how voluntary efforts to improve the healthiness of baskets had failed. “What we hear from industry all the time is that you need a level playing field,” Garrett said.