Lidl GB is the first retailer to announce a fibre strategy that spans its entire product offering, setting out two key targets. By 2026, it plans to increase the tonnage of total fibre sold by 20%, and by 2030, boost the volume of wholegrains it sells to 25% of total grains.
With nearly a quarter (23%)1 of shoppers actively seeking high-fibre products for their weekly groceries, the discounter’s new initiative is set to make it easier and more affordable for customers to improve their diets. Currently, only 9% of UK adults meet the recommended daily intake of 30g of fibre2, with lower-income households consuming even less, highlighting the need for this initiative.
As part of its new targets, Lidl is working with suppliers to enhance existing recipes by incorporating more plant-based, fibre-rich ingredients like lentils, beans, and grains, whilst reducing fats and sugars. It will also seek to introduce new and exciting high-fibre products, boosting nutritional value and making everyday items healthier.
Demonstrating its commitment to improving fibre consumption nationwide, Lidl became the first retailer to sign up to the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) Action on Fibre initiative to help make higher-fibre diets more appealing for households. It has also turned to its rewards app, Lidl Plus, to offer monthly promotions on these products, making a fibre-rich diet more accessible and affordable. Recent promotions have nearly doubled sales of fibre-rich products such as wheat biscuits, oats, and granola, demonstrating the success and popularity of these initiatives.
Overarching commitment to increase plant-based sales, in partnership with WWF
Building on its new fibre focus, Lidl has also become the first retailer to implement WWF’s “Planet-Based Diets” methodology3 internationally across all 31 countries in which it operates, driving impactful change at scale. The WWF methodology will be used to measure and report on its product assortments and sales as it seeks to identify clear routes towards offering customers healthier and more environmentally conscious products, including vegetables, wholegrains, and plant-based protein foods such as beans and pulses.
With its ambition to align with the Planetary Health Diet by 2050, Lidl’s new overarching commitment is first-to-market and sets out to increase the proportion of plant-based foods sold, including plant-based protein sources, wholegrains, fruits, and vegetables, by 20% by 2030.
Supporting targets to enable healthy and sustainable food shopping choices
To achieve this, Lidl has been working to ambitious targets, in addition to its fibre and wholegrain goals:
- By implementing measures such as reformulating products to improve their nutritional profile, removing designs that are attractive to children from less healthy items (including cartoon characters), and providing healthy recipe ideas on its website, Lidl hit its target of ensuring at least 80% of its sales come from healthy or healthier products by 2025, based on tonnage, ahead of schedule in 2023.
- To support a 35% increase in fresh fruit and vegetable sales by 2026, Lidl works closely with suppliers to enhance quality and freshness, prioritising British produce and local sourcing where possible, whilst offering weekly discounts on six fruit and veg lines. Additionally, it has introduced dedicated fruit and veg specialists across all its stores to ensure customers are getting the very best quality.
- As announced in October last year, through the expansion of its plant-based range, increased visibility in stores, and additional marketing, the discounter is looking to ensure plant-based protein sales (tonnage) account for 25% of its total protein sales by 2030.
Richard Bourns, chief commercial officer at Lidl GB, said: “As the first UK retailer to align its strategy with the science of the Planetary Health Diet, Lidl is committed to supporting healthy and sustainable diets and setting ambitious targets to ensure our food is good for both people and the planet. We stand firmly behind the need for sustainable consumption as part of the net-zero transition and are committed to offering our customers an ever-expanding range of healthy, sustainable products at affordable prices. With WWF as an experienced partner by our side, we aim to make a greater impact on transforming the global food system—and hope that other supermarkets will follow suit.”
Sophie Bauer, Head of Food System Transformation at WWF UK, added: “We welcome Lidl’s alignment with the Planetary Health Diet and the use of the WWF Planet-Based Diets Retailer Methodology. Adopting healthier, more sustainable diets is a crucial step in transforming the food system, which is the number one driver of wildlife and nature loss. By setting public targets focused on increasing plant-based choices, Lidl is helping to support both human and planetary health. We hope this inspires other retailers to follow suit to make healthy, sustainable foods the easy and affordable choice.”
This update follows Lidl’s announcement of a new five-year international and strategic partnership with WWF in June 2024 across 31 countries. In 2023, Lidl GB became the first discount supermarket, and the sixth UK retailer, to sign WWF’s Retailers’ Commitment for Nature – an agreement to work with WWF to halve the environmental impact of UK shopping baskets by 2030.
