SUGAR has become the number one nutrient concern of shoppers in the UK, according to Kantar Worldpanel.
Research from the consumer insight company shows that health is now the number one reason for food selection on a third of occasions, and 93% of people say they want to cut down on the amount of sugar they consume.
However, director Giles Quick suggested it was unclear whether a sugar tax would make a difference.
“History shows where a category increases significantly in price and has a close substitution, people just switch category,” he said. “If we enter a store wanting to buy a biscuit, it is very difficult to persuade us to buy an apple, but we may be convinced to switch to a lower-sugar biscuit. So to drive effective change, healthier may work better than healthy, with a new type of in-store signage directing us to ‘the healthiest’ line.”
He urged retailers to reposition their healthy ranges, anchoring them to fresh fruit and veg. Retailers could also take more radical steps, such as using loyalty cards to provide personalised healthy eating recommendations, he said.
