The problem

An unhealthy diet often leads to serious health problems and an increased risk of (chronic) diseases* in adulthood. At present, virtually nobody eats and drinks completely healthily, and 1 in 8 children is overweight. This is hardly surprising when you consider that unhealthy products are often cheaper and available in many more places, and that they are advertised much more heavily than healthy products.

Unhealthy food is, after smoking, the second most important preventable cause of death and lost healthy life years.

Working together

To address this problem, the parties are working together in the Alliance for a Healthy Generation. Through this alliance, the parties create focus, strengthen one another and form one powerful voice. The parties are committed to a society in which eating and drinking healthily is the norm. Starting with young people. They are doing this by encouraging the availability of healthier, cheaper, more accessible and more appealing food.

Based on their shared objective, the parties are encouraging the changes needed to make people's food environment healthier. For example, by urging the government to introduce supportive regulations, encouraging supermarkets and the food industry to use less salt, sugar and saturated fat in products, and putting an end to the marketing of unhealthy food and drinks to children. By making the food environment healthier, the parties are working together to ensure that every child in the Netherlands follows a healthy diet by 2040.

Superlijst Gezondheid

On 13 October, the Alliance published Superlijst Gezondheid, the first ranking comparing what eight Dutch supermarkets are doing to help their customers choose healthy food and drinks.

The study, conducted by the research foundation Questionmark, shows that there are major differences between the supermarket chains, regardless of their format or market share. Lidl, Dirk, Coop and Ekoplaza are leading the way; Albert Heijn, Jumbo, Aldi and Plus are less advanced.

The overall picture is that supermarkets still do too little to discourage unhealthy choices:

  • On average, 82% of the offers in promotional leaflets are unhealthy.
  • At virtually every checkout, sweets and chocolate are within easy reach.
  • Supermarkets have not set themselves a clear goal of selling fewer unhealthy products.

The report also identifies what individual supermarkets are doing well. For example, one supermarket chain no longer offers unhealthy food at the checkout, while another chain uses Disney characters to make Wheel of Five products appealing to children. In general, it appears that every supermarket could learn something from the others.