Kids Food Guarantee - The affordability and accessibility of fruit, vegetables and wholegrain

Parents on lower incomes face barriers to accessing and affording fruit, veg and wholegrains across major UK retailers, concludes our latest research.

• 14% of the lowest priced fruit and veg products across major retailers in the UK contain added salt and/or sugar. 
• The lowest priced fruit and veg do not appear to be that readily available in physical stores, particularly convenience or express formats
• Just 1 in 6 (16%) of staple carbohydrate options are wholegrain, with wholegrain foods costing more on average than comparable white carbohydrate products. 

The National Food Strategy showed that just 55% of low income households meet the 5-a-day recommendation compared to 85% of the highest income households. 

The Kids Food Guarantee therefore asks all retailers to:

• Ensure that a range of budget fruit and veg products are available across all their stores and that there is a shift away from products with added sugar and/or salt in tinned fruit and veg products
• Ensure that wholegrain products are at price parity or at a lower price to the refined equivalent.