Consumers offered more cheap deals on meat than healthy food, research finds

Supermarkets are using multibuy promotional deals to encourage shoppers to buy meat and processed meat, despite the products being linked to a heightened risk of cancer, new research reveals.

- Denis Campbell

Almost one in five (18%) of all multibuy offers in major British supermarkets involve meat and dairy products, and one in 10 (11%) processed meat such as ham, bacon and sausages.

Customers are being encouraged to buy such products even though the World Health Organization says that red meat "probably" causes cancer and processed meat definitely does.

The Food Foundation said that its findings, especially about processed meat, are "alarming" for environmental as well as health reasons. It accused food retailers of "actively incentivising citizens to buy more of those foods". Only 5% of offers involve fruit and vegetables.

Rebecca Tobi, the thinktank's senior business and investor engagement manager, said: "We know that supermarkets routinely use buy one get one free and price promotion deals to get us to buy more of products than we would otherwise. So the fact that many of these deals are on foods that are harming our health and our planet is alarming."