Supermarkets are being urged by parents to stop displaying confectionery, crisps and soft drinks at the checkouts.
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The Parents Jury, a group set up by the Food Commission to enable parents to express their views about children’s food and food marketing, said the practice deliberately targets children with junk food.
A Parents Jury survey published in Food Magazine criticises UK retailers Asda, Safeway and Marks & Spencer for checkout displays that put confectionery, crisps and soft drinks within toddlers’ reach.
Tesco and Lidl, meanwhile, were praised for giving customers a choice by having some checkouts free from snacks. Waitrose scored highest in the survey, for not displaying snacks beside any checkouts.
“Seventy per cent of confectionery is bought on impulse,” said nutritionist Annie Seeley, Parents Jury coordinator. “Retailers know that putting snacks and soft drinks at the checkout where people queue increases sales substantially. But parents say this manipulative marketing technique leads to family conflict when children pester for the products and parents have to say no.”
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By GlobalDataRetailers, however, may not be keen to remove sweets and chocolate from the checkout. Swiss food giant Nestlé estimated that an extra 15 million chocolate bars could be sold across the year by “putting chocolate within temptation’s reach”, the Food Commission said.
