Lidl is making a major change to its packaging to help parents resist the “pester power” of kids.
The supermarket wants to help families make healthier choices by making unhealthy options less appealing to children.
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The discounter plans to remove all cartoon characters from junk food by spring 2024.
The move is aimed to reduce kids nagging their parents to buy unhealthy products due to the appeal of the packaging, otherwise known as “pester power”.
Over 14 different product categories will be impacted such as sweets, chocolates and savoury snacks.
At least 30 products will be getting a fresh look, including the discounters Sweet Fruit Chews and Multicoloured Fizzy Belts.
The move follows Lidl removing cartoon characters from cereal packaging in 2020.
Peter de Roos, chief commercial officer at Lidl, 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.
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“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.”
The retailer has previously introduced cartoon characters to fruit and veg ranges to make them more appealing to kids – and is calling on other supermarkets to make a similar move.
Lidl’s Oaklands Funsize range includes fresh fruit and veg with quirky names and cartoon characters, such as Banana-Llamas and Tawny Tomatowl.
The new packaging, added in 2017, saw sales of the range increase by more than a third.
The latest changes will be implemented across all 960 Lidl GB stores by Spring 2024.
A spokesperson for Lidl said it will be making an exception for Christmas, Easter and Halloween as these are “special occasions in a child’s life and do not define their everyday diets.”
Lidl is not the only supermarket making changes to its packaging.
Sainsbury’s recently changed the way its whole chicken range is packaged, in a move that is designed to help the environment.
And earlier in the year they upset shoppers by starting to sell beef mince in vacuum-sealed plastic, leaving some customers claiming it made the meat taste “revolting”.
