Positioning fruit and veg products in three or four places across grocery stores, and supermarkets introducing chilled checkouts, pro-fruit and veg trolley placards and basket mirrors are some of the 34 demands the NFU is making in an attempt to help boost fruit and veg consumption.
On top of this, retailers have also been asked to include one extra portion of fruit and veg in their ready meals, and embed storage instructions onto pre-packed fruit and veg outer packaging, among other things.
The government and the foodservice sector have been urged to redesign layout areas in places such as hospitals and schools, so that fruit and veg are more prominent, while the former has been urged to develop a “cohesive strategy for fruit and veg consumption”.
The NFU's Horticulture and Potatoes Board makes the pleas in its Fit For The Future: Helping Consumers Eat More Fruit and Veg report.
It quotes Defra data showing that fruit, veg and potato purchases fell by 14, five and 20 per cent respectively from 2007 to 2014.
Ali Capper (pictured), chairman of the board, said: “As a mother to two young children, I know how difficult it is to ensure they have a healthily balanced diet when they can so easily be influenced by clever marketing campaigns, conflicting information and the proliferation of innutritious foods in stores.
'And as a grower, I see first-hand the damage that a fall in consumption is having on UK businesses.
“Delivering growth in consumption of fruit and veg benefits everyone: it enables growers to invest in the future and deliver great value and highly nutritious foods; it delivers profits back into the supply chain; and, importantly, it can help consumers have healthier lives.
“That's why I feel so passionate that all parts of the industry and government need to step up their efforts to make this happen.
'At the NFU, we're prepared to give this the attention it needs and by delivering Fit for the Future we are calling on industry and government to join us in this most important initiative.”
At ground level, processors and farmers are urged to work with their customers to develop a “demand-led strategy that could encompass the development of new crop varieties”, to identify new ways of giving convenience to consumers, and to boost the number of fruit and veg snacks available, as the trend increases to replace meals with snack alternatives.”
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