Eight of Scotland’s biggest food sellers, including Tesco and Asda, have signed a pledge to help customers eat more fruit and vegetables.
The move is aimed at tackling the country’s obesity crisis.
The supermarkets have signed up to implementing measures such as keeping fruit and vegetables “affordable”.
They could also put higher quantities of fruit and vegetables in their own brand products such as soups and ready meals.
Another of the six “initiatives” from which the supermarkets can choose is strategically placing displays of vitamin-packed apples and avocados to encourage impulse buying, replacing chocolate and chewing gum.
They might also ensure a range of pre-prepared and ready-to-cook vegetables are available.
Fruit and vegetables
The other retailers who have signed up are Boots, The Co-operative, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose.
The voluntary arrangement is being co-ordinated by the Scottish Retail Consortium and is backed by the Scottish government.
Sport Minister Shona Robison, responsible for healthy weight issues, welcomed the retailers’ commitment.
She said: “By enabling consumers to make informed choices about what is best to eat and the benefits of fruit and vegetables, this commitment from Scotland’s retailers can help improve diet and tackle unhealthy weight.”
Scottish Retail Consortium director Ian Shearer said: “The promise stores are signing up to will have an impact on how they price, promote and prepare fruit and vegetables. These are practical and affordable steps which make it easier for all customers to enjoy healthier diets.”
Latest government figures, for 2009, show that two thirds of men aged 16-64 (66.3%) and more than half of women (58.4%) in Scotland are overweight, which includes those classed as obese.
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Every GP practice should have a team of obesity specialists, able to help people lose weight and prevent serious problems developing, a leading expert suggests.
Professor Tony Leeds, writing in the BBC News ‘Scrubbing Up’ column, says this would cut the numbers needing specialist hospital care.
Obesity costs the NHS around £4.2bn annually.
One in four adults are now obese, according to the latest government figures.
And a report published in 2007, the government-commissioned Foresight report predicted that if no action was taken, 60% of men, 50% of women and 25% of children would be obese by 2050.
Prof Leeds, who runs obesity clinics at London’s Whittington and Central Middlesex hospitals, says in Scrubbing Up: “I have patients who are several stones overweight and blighted by diabetes, and there are those who are up to 60 stone (381kg), awaiting surgery.
“Yet if real help was more available in primary care fewer would reach me and my colleagues in specialist hospital centres in the first place.”
He says people with relatively little weight to lose – 10-15lbs (around 5kg) can be offered conventional diets, while those who need to lose a lot – five stone (31kg) may be referred for surgery.
But it is those in the middle who, Prof Leeds suggests, currently lose out.
He says the key was improving training for GPs in the care of people with weight problems.
Other primary care staff should also be given better training, he says.
And he suggests tailored diet plans, plus more effective support, could be offered.
Dr Clare Gerada, chair of the Royal College of GPs, has said GPs would welcome a structured approach to obesity care, but that it would have to be properly funded and resourced.
He says the problem stems from a lack of training.
GP leaders welcomed a more “structured approach”.
Glasgow update :
The 23,000sq ft outlet in Gifnock, an upmarket suburb south of the Scottish city, will be the chain’s first store outside London and the first to open since the launch of Whole Foods’ huge outlet in High Street Kensington in 2007.
Jeff Turnas, Whole Foods’ UK regional president, said: “I see us having several stores in Scotland. This is the first step to learn about the market.”
Whole Foods’ US parent company continues to back expansion in the UK despite £70.46m in set up costs and operating losses since launch. Accounts just filed at Companies House reveal that Whole Foods’ British stores made a loss of £3.06m in the year to September 2010, down from £4.36m a year earlier. The drop in losses was partly due to a £1.6m reversal of previous impairment charges after trading improved.
Turnover rose 7.4pc to £46.3m after action to trim prices, offer more promotions and tweak ranges. A deal giving access to free parking at Wholefoods’ 80,000sq ft High Street Kensington store also helped deliver double-digit like for like sales growth at the flagship which has just enjoyed its first profitable quarter since opening.
There are currently five Whole Foods stores in the UK, including four former Fresh & Wild sites, a chain which has gradually been converted to the Whole Foods brand since it was acquired in 2004.
Mr Turnas said Whole Foods expected to double the size of the chain within the next five years. The group has already signed two new leases in London, with stores in Richmond and Fulham expected to open in 2013. Further stores have also been identified, some of which may be outside the capital.
Mr Turnas said he was not put off by Glasgow’s reputation for deep fried foods. “We’re confident there’s a market for us up there. You have these stereotypes everywhere and I look at it that there’s an opportunity we’ve got in educating customers about healthy eating.”
He said the store would be tailored to the local market using Scottish artisan foods including smoked salmon and haggis as well as coffee roasted by Gifnock-based Thomson’s. All meat and eggs will also be sourced from north of the border.
Analysts were surprised at Scotland being chosen for the first store outside the M25. “They do need more stores to get the brand recognised outside London and to get some scale but by opening so far away there are going to be distribution problems,” said Maureen Hinton, a retail analyst at Verdict Research. She added food price inflation and the economic downturn also meant that even the most affluent shoppers were steering clear of more expensive foods, including organic. “They have got a bit of a challenge ahead of them,” she said.
So far the UK has been more of a challenge than the US company anticipated. When it first arrived in the UK, Whole Foods said it would open as many as 40 stores here and expected to be profitable within “a year or two.”
Paul Knight, owner of Eat Deli, a local restaurant, said he thought Whole Foods would “do alright” in Gifnock. “It sells organic and decent quality food which will be refreshing. Waitrose has just opened nearby and it is doing a roaring trade. It is hard to get better quality food in most supermarkets here as they all have the assumption that we just eat rubbish.
“We do have our fried Mars Bars but there is a massive foody culture in Glasgow – we specialise in both.”