Supermarkets are using multi-purchase promotional offers to encourage shoppers to buy meat and processed meat, despite the products being linked to an increased risk of cancer, research has found.
Nearly one in five (18%) of multibuy offers in major UK supermarkets involve meat and dairy products, and one in ten (11%) processed meats such as ham, bacon and sausage.
Customers are encouraged to buy such products, even though the World Health Organization says red meat probably causes cancer and that processed meat certainly does.
The Food Foundation said its findings, especially on processed meat, were alarming for both environmental and health reasons. It accused food retailers of “actively encouraging citizens to buy more of those foods that are known to be bad for the health of people and the planet”.
The think tank’s senior manager of business and investor engagement, Rebecca Tobi, said: “We know that supermarkets routinely use ‘buy one, get one free’ and price promotions to get us to buy more products than we otherwise would. So the fact that many of these deals involve foods that harm our health and our planet is alarming.”
Only 5% of multibuy offers concern fruit and vegetables.
The Food Foundation based its findings on offers from Aldi, Asda, Iceland, Morrison’s, Sainsbury’s and Tesco in March, when the Questionmark Foundation analyzed their money-saving deals.
Iceland had the most promotions on processed meat, which accounted for 15% of its multibuy deals, followed by Tesco (13%) and Asda (11%). Iceland also offered the fewest offers on fruit and vegetables at just 2%.
“Despite knowing that too much processed meat poses significant health risks, supermarket marketing and promotions are still heavily focused on meat-rich foods,” Tobi said.
Dr. Panagiota Mitrou, director of research, policy and innovation at the World Cancer Research Fund, said: “It is disappointing that food retailers are using multi-buy offers to make this type of meat more financially attractive to shoppers and encourage higher consumption.”
People should eat a maximum of three portions of red meat a week – weighing around 30 to 500 grams (cooked weight) – and “little or no processed meat”, given the evidence on meat’s link to cancer, and especially the proven role of processed meat. in increasing the risk of colon cancer, she said.
The British Retail Consortium has not responded to the Food Foundation’s findings, which will be set out in its upcoming annual report. Its director of food and sustainability, Andrew Opie, said only this: “Anyone who shops in a supermarket knows how affordable retailers create fresh fruit and vegetables, whether that’s through everyday low prices or promotions.
“It is the core part of their offering and although they will promote produce in store, there is always excellent quality, mostly British, affordable fruit and vegetables available because that is what customers demand.”
In the Netherlands, all major supermarkets have committed that 60% of their sales of protein products will be plant-based by 2030, to help promote health and reduce the food sector’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions.
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In Britain, only Lidl and the Compass Group have set sales-based targets aimed at driving higher sales of non-meat dishes.
Research from the Food Foundation also found that most main meals sold by major restaurant chains still contain meat, despite the strong shift in recent times towards people following vegetarian and vegan diets.
Of the 63 main restaurants analyzed, 58% of the main meals consisted of meat. In 2022 this was still 62%, of which 33% was meatless and 9% fish.
Joe and the Juice had the highest percentage of meat-free main courses at 69%, followed by Sainsbury’s cafes (59%) and Pizza Express (57%).
In contrast, 100% of Chicken Cottage’s main meals contained meat, as did most of the meals sold by Burger King (88%), KFC (87%), Gourmet Burger Kitchen (83%) and McDonald’s (81%).
UKHospitality was contacted for comment.