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Superlist Environment 2022 Sweden

Nov 22, 2022

Sustainable food. How do Swedish supermarkets promote meat sales using price promotions?

Supermarkets can play an important role in making the food pattern more sustainable and healthy. In Superlist Environment, we researched the extent to which supermarkets stimulate meat consumption through price promotions.

These are the most important findings.

Meat Promotions in Supermarkets Encourage Unsustainable Consumption ↓
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Meat Promotions in Supermarkets Encourage Unsustainable Consumption

Meat consumption in general is a significant contributor to climate change. Despite this, Swedish supermarkets encourage the purchase of meat. Two out of three meat promotions give a price reduction only for consumers who buy multiple products. Recent research in the UK has shown that these 'multi-buy promotions’ lead to increased consumption of the promoted food category, in this case meat.

On top of that, meat with sustainability challenges is still heavily promoted by supermarkets. The meat that supermarkets promote hardly ever gets a green light according to the Swedish WWF meat guide.

These findings illustrate that Swedish supermarkets contribute to a high environmental impact of the Swedish food system. They also imply that supermarkets have excellent opportunities to contribute to a more sustainable food system. Limiting the use of multi-buys for meat and the promotion of meat that gets a red or yellow light is low hanging fruit.