Lidl to make major change to children’s food items to help them eat less junk food - here’s why

Lidl is set to make a huge change to more than 30 food items for children
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Lidl is set to make a major change to some of its products to encourage children to eat healthier foods.  The discounter announced it will be giving ‘unhealthy’ food items a ‘fresh look’ by removing child-friendly packaging on more than 14 different product categories such as sweets, chocolates and savoury snacks.

Lidl has said at least 30 products will be getting a new look including the discounters Sweet Fruit Chews and Multicoloured Fizzy Belts. The change comes after Lidl removed cartoon characters from ‘unhealthy’ cereal packaging in 2020.

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Lidl aims to help families across the country make healthier choices, after research revealed that over two thirds (68%) of parents found child friendly characters on unhealthy food and drink packaging made it more difficult to feed their children a healthy diet.

Peter de Roos, chief commercial officer at Lidl GB said: “Our ambition is to make high quality, healthy food accessible to all, and the principal way we achieve this is through our best value prices. But we also recognise that there are other barriers in place, particularly concerning children, and parents are telling us that unhelpful packaging is one of them.

“This is something that’s so simple for us supermarkets to change, and our results show the positive impact that these small changes can make. We hope other supermarkets follow in our footsteps so that, as a sector, we can be confident we’re doing all we can to support parents in helping to improve the diets of the next generation.”

Lidl is hoping to expand by opening multiple stores in Portsmouth, Fareham and other parts of Hampshire. Picture: LOIC VENANCE/AFP via Getty Images.Lidl is hoping to expand by opening multiple stores in Portsmouth, Fareham and other parts of Hampshire. Picture: LOIC VENANCE/AFP via Getty Images.
Lidl is hoping to expand by opening multiple stores in Portsmouth, Fareham and other parts of Hampshire. Picture: LOIC VENANCE/AFP via Getty Images.

In addition to the removal of cartoon characters on unhealthy products, Lidl is calling on other supermarkets to make fruit and vegetables more appealing to kids. The call comes as the discounter revealed that sales of its Oaklands Funsize range increased by more than a third since introducing the child-friendly packaging in 2017.

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Lidl was the first British supermarket to introduce a range of healthy products specifically designed to encourage children to eat more greens. The collection comprises fresh fruit and veg with quirky names and cartoon characters, such as Banana-Llamas and Tawny Tomatowl.

And to further engage youngsters, competitions were held to name and design cartoon characters. The result has been the introduction of numerous memorable characters, including Koala Pears, which led to nearly a quarter of a million additional units being sold the year after the competition closed.

The announcement comes following the publication of Lidl’s new Healthy & Sustainable Diets Policy, which aims to ensure diets are healthier, more sustainable and easier to understand to aid customers decision making in-store.

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