Lidl asks to improve packaging for fruit and vegetables to attract children

26 May 2023

Lidl, the German discount retailer, is urging supermarkets to revamp the design and packaging of their fruit and vegetable products to make them more appealing to children. This appeal comes in response to Lidl’s significant increase in sales of their Oaklands Funsize range, which was introduced in 2017.

The Oaklands Funsize range offers fresh fruits and vegetables with captivating names and cartoon characters featured on the packaging. By incorporating these engaging names and eye-catching designs, Lidl successfully encourages children to consume healthier food options. In a similar effort, Lidl also introduced an initiative that invited young shoppers to participate in competitions where they could create and name their own cartoon characters.

SAFE welcomes this initiative, as children are often the target of aggressive marketing on unhealthy and ultraprocessed food products. In a Canadian study of close to 6000 packaged foods, the results evidenced that packaged foods marketed specifically to appeal to children were significantly higher in sugar and lower in other nutrients than foods not targeted to children.