Supermarkets must set ambitious targets to increase sales of healthy products, according to the healthy markets investor coalition.
Members of ShareAction’s coalition, which together represent over $1 trillion (£0.78 trillion) in assets under management, also called for clearer labelling.
They argued that food businesses need to demonstrate they are “well-positioned for the increase in regulation and the societal shift to healthier diets”.
As an investment topic, health has traditionally fallen behind other issues, such as the environment or corporate governance. This is all set to change, according to ShareAction, a charity promoting responsible investment.
ShareAction’s coalition of investors, which includes BMO Global Asset Management, M&G Investments, Newton and EQ Investors, are also urging supermarkets to disclose the proportion of their sales that come from healthy products.
Sainsbury’s and M&S have begun to make commitments but pressure is building for others to follow suit – in particular Tesco, which is the market leader. “Disclosing the percentage of sales from healthy food allows us, as investors, to understand if they are already taking action on the shared responsibility to tackle obesity, and obesity-related illness,” said Lousiana Salge from EQ investors.
Earlier this year, the Access to Nutrition Initiative (ATNI) reviewed the information disclosed by major supermarkets, covering product reformulation, responsible marketing, affordability, labelling and governance. Researchers used 120 indicators across eight categories and discovered disclosure was “very poor”.
Six of the 10 retailers assessed reported on 20-39% of the indicators, with Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer reporting most extensively. The remaining retailers scored on fewer than 20% of the indicators, with Asda and Iceland offering the least public information. No supermarket reported on more than 40% of the indicators.
Previous research by ATNI found that 69% of products sold in UK supermarkets are rated as “unhealthy”, against the health star rating nutrient profiling system used by retailers in Australia and New Zealand.
ShareAction food and health engagement manager Louisa Hodge explained: “Some retailers may have committed to move sweets away from checkouts, to remove cartoons from sugary items, or to reformulate products to reduce sugar, salt or fat. However, poor reporting often means that we do not know whether these actions have been applied across entire ranges of products, rolled out across all stores, or are simply not happening at all.
ATNI’s research also revealed only two supermarkets, Tesco and Co-op, cite health and obesity as a “business risk”.
Investors are increasingly interested in supermarkets’ preparedness for looming regulation and their approaches to help tackle obesity. And scrutiny is expected to intensify on the back of the pandemic. There is consistent evidence (reviewed in a report by Public Health England) showing people who are overweight or living with obesity who contract covid-19 are more likely to be admitted to hospital, to an intensive care unit and to die from the virus compared to those of a healthy body weight.
In July UK Government launched a new plan to tackle obesity, including new rules on labelling and marketing.
