Healthy shopping made easy at ALDI

We have been recently asked about our policies for promoting healthy options in-store, so we wanted to unpack some truths for our customers.

Since ALDI opened in Australia in 2001, we have always had a strong and consistent strategy to exceed national standards and customer expectations when it comes to health.

Since day one, we have consistently looked for new ways to make it even easier for our customers to make healthy choices. This is especially important given current rates of obesity in Australia, with two thirds of Australian adults and one in every four children and adolescents classed as overweight or obese.[1]

As Australia’s fastest growing supermarket, we have a responsibility to provide healthy options to Australian shoppers.

Here are just a few ways ALDI is making it easy for customers to shop healthy.

1. Fresh products in the spotlight
Step inside one of ALDI’s new format stores and you’ll notice a few differences. First up, we’ve moved our fresh produce to the front of our stores, making it even easier for shoppers to access these items. As part of our store upgrades, we’ve also added about 100 new healthy products across our meat, fresh produce, chilled and healthy ready-to-eat ranges – that’s almost 7% of our entire every day range alone.

2. An expanding health range
ALDI’s product range is smaller than other retailers, at approximately 1,450 products compared to on average 20,000. Despite the smaller range, we have a big focus on providing healthy, alternative foods that cater to a broad range of nutritional needs and lifestyles.

Product ranges that help our customers lead a healthier lifestyle include Oh So Natural, Just Organic and Has No, all of which account for 4.5% of our everyday range – higher than other supermarkets. Did you know ALDI also offers gluten-free, lactose-free, vegetarian and vegan options?

We’re continuously on the lookout for new products or ranges that exceed our customers’ needs and expectations. For example, in response to growing demand, we plan to grow our Has No gluten-free range by 50% in 2018 alone. In the last two years, we’ve expanded both our organic range by 21% and over the same period, products made with healthy wholegrains have increased by 42%.

3. Better labelling and nutritional contents
Back in 2009, ALDI became the first retailer in Australia to introduce front-of-pack Percentage Daily Intake (%DI) labelling. This has helped our customers to easily identify nutritional contents and make informed purchasing decisions.

The way we measure and benchmark nutritional quality continues to evolve. So in 2015, ALDI signed up for the voluntary Health Star Rating (HSR) system and within a year, more than a third of our everyday range of products displayed a HSR.

We’re continuing to build on this commitment with more product packaging being updated to incorporate the HSR and we have been actively working to improve the nutritional profile of our products. In particular, our suppliers and Quality Assurance team have been focusing on reducing the amount of sugar, sodium and saturated fat content in our exclusive brand products.

Since 2015, ALDI has implemented the ‘Be Treatwise’ logo on all products in our chocolate and confectionery category to remind customers that these products are a treat food which should be enjoyed in moderation as part of a balanced diet.  Additional information about enjoying confectionery treats as part of a healthy and balanced diet can be found here.

4. Eliminating unnecessary additives
ALDI is proud to be the only supermarket in Australia completely free of artificial colours across our entire range of food items*. We made this commitment in 2010 after a study was published by researchers at the University of Southampton**, which demonstrated increased levels of hyperactivity in young children consuming some artificial colours. We removed artificial colours by working with suppliers to reformulate existing products and in some cases, removing products that could not be reformulated.

We’re proud to partner with Ferndale Confectionary, Australia’s first confectionery supplier to make products using only natural colours and flavours. You can read more about this partnership here.

ALDI’s Food Additive Policy also extends to MSG, which is not added to any of our ALDI branded food or beverage products.

5. Everyday low prices
As ALDI’s pricing strategy consists of everyday low prices, you’ll notice that we never use price promotions to drive sales of unhealthy products, nor do we offer any other type of temporary discount such as buy one get one free. Instead, our healthy options are priced consistently lower than our competitors, making it easy for shoppers to make good choices.

For example, a comparison of organic pantry items in 2017 found ALDI’s organic range to be 15-24% cheaper than other major retailers. In fact, when ALDI do offer price promotions in the form of our weekly “Super Savers”, the majority of these deals are on fresh meat and produce, encouraging shoppers to stock up on these items.

To see how easy it is to shop healthy on a budget, grab your shopping list and head in to your local store.

*excluding pet food

** The Southampton Study — http://www.soton.ac.uk/mediacentre/news/2007/sep/07_99.shtml