UK supermarkets go all out for ‘Jab-uary’ with food for those on weight-loss drugs

Veganuary and dry January are among the new year health kicks enthusiastically endorsed by supermarkets, but this year the buzz is around “Jab-uary” as pricey diet foods aimed at people on weight-loss drugs hit the shelves.Marks & Spencer, Morrisons, Asda, Ocado and the Co-op are among the big names targeting shoppers who use weight-loss injections, known as GLP-1 agonists, but better known by brand names such as Wegovy and Mounjaro.Ocado’s new virtual “weight management” aisle includes a “curated range of GLP-1-friendly products” that runs the gamut from tiny (100g) portions of steak costing £3.50 to a trendy “powdered greens” supplement, AG1, at £107 a pack.The online supermarket said it was seeing strong demand for protein-rich staples such as steak, chicken, cottage cheese, health drinks and vitamins and supplements.Ocado also sells M&S’s new “Nutrient Dense” range of meals, snacks and drinks that it says contain “high amounts of nutrients per calorie”. The £7 chicken satay ready meal and £2 coconut water shot “H₅O”, it says, are ideal for people “reducing their food intake”. Meanwhile, the Co-op is plugging “mini meals” – 250g-280g pots “inspired by global cuisines” costing £3.50 a go.About 6% of UK adults are thought to be taking GLP-1 drugs, said Jonny Forsyth, a senior analyst at the market research company Mintel. However, he argues the hype around them is having an “outsize influence” on consumer behaviour and amplifying other diet trends, such as eating high protein foods.Ocado’s Turf & Clover small extra lean steak. Photograph: Ocado/PAIn the recent flurry of Christmas trading updates, some big high street names said the drugs were starting to change how people shopped. This included eating fewer sausage rolls, and Roisin Currie, the Greggs chief executive, commented that people were looking for “smaller portions” and healthier options.Sainsbury’s has also spotted new behaviour. “For customers using these products, we’re seeing more of that switch into healthier choices, into fresh food, into fibre,” said its chief executive, Simon Roberts. This month the grocer introduced more low-calorie and high-protein ready meals. The 300g “Small but Mighty” range includes dishes such as teriyaki chicken and costs £3.Ken Murphy, the Tesco chief executive, said the supermarket was watching “very closely” how the GLP-1 trend was developing.Indeed, while total UK grocery sales rose 2.5% in value terms over the four weeks to 27 December, the amount of food and drink sold declined 0.2% on a volume basis, according to the market researcher NielsenIQ.For food and hospitality businesses the fear is that the widespread uptake of these drugs could put a dent in profits. A 2024 Cornell University study found households with at least one GLP-1 user cut their grocery spend by 5.3% within six months, while for higher-income households it was 8.2%.Although there were declines in most food categories over the period studied, in some areas they were marked, with savoury snacks such as crisps down 10.1% and an 8% drop in spending at fast-food chains and coffee shops. In the US almost 20% of adults are taking weight-loss drugs.However, can supermarkets turn small portions into a virtue, given consumers are fed up with shrinkflation (where shoppers get less product for the same or higher price)? There is also a question mark over whether people want ranges with “GLP-1” stamped on the front as they may not be open about the fact they are using medication.The Morrisons “GLP-1 friendly” own-label ready meals, which include a chicken casserole, weigh just 280g but cost the same as dishes in its other diet ranges. The £3.75 price is fairly typical in ready meals, but if one compares the price per kilo it is a different story, said Charlotte Derra, fast-moving consumer goods category consultant.“Morrisons Counted and Protein ranges are the same price for typically 380g v the 280g GLP-1 friendly range,” she said. “At £0.99 v £1.34 per 100g for the GLP-1 friendly ranges this is at a 35% price premium.” The M&S Nutrient Dense ready meals come in 400g packs and cost £7 (£1.75/100g), which she said was within typical ready meal pack sizes.M&S, Co-op and Iceland have “rightly” avoided explicitly mentioning GLP-1 drugs on the front of packs, Forsyth said. “This is smart marketing because we know from our data that if you group people into a club, such as Weight Watchers, where people feel there is a stigma attached to belonging, you restrict your potential audience.”The M&S range is the “most likely to do well because its user base are among the minority of Brits who can afford to pay for these drugs privately” added Forsyth, who found it “bizarre” that Greggs had said the drugs were hitting sales. “I suspect it has more to do with people cutting back on discretionary food spend in response to much higher food prices since 2022. Even Greggs’ iconic sausage roll has soared in price by 30%,” he said.The GLP-1 ready meals in Morrisons mean it is now sells four healthy chicken tikka masala dishes. However, in a cutthroat UK grocery market worth £250bn a year, food market product developers are under pressure to react, given the outlook for some food categories is “pretty bleak”, said Mark Whalley, a co-founder of the video insights company Explners.“UK supermarket retail is dominated by everybody worrying that the other guys are on to something,” he said. The hard part will be convincing shoppers: “Being small is in itself a benefit. That’s what they’re effectively saying when the price doesn’t go down with the portion size.“It’s just whether there’s an actual need for these products, or whether people could just eat a little bit less of the products that they already buy. Does it specifically need a new product, an extra thing on shelf that’s just 100g smaller?”