London, UK - Nesta and Asda are today announcing a new partnership to reduce barriers to health and wellbeing by making healthier eating more affordable, accessible and attractive.

The two-year collaboration aims to identify, test, and scale initiatives that improve customer health goals without undercutting commercial objectives.

Rising rates of obesity in the UK are a significant public health concern. Efforts to curb this trend with interventions focusing on individual responsibility have had limited success, and obesity rates in the UK have doubled since 1990. Nesta’s A Healthy Life mission and Asda’s ‘Better Lives for All’ initiative both aim to address this problem and make healthy food more accessible and affordable for consumers.

Through Nesta and Asda’s joint "Health Innovation Partnership', the organisations will work on projects with the aim to deliver health benefits, including developing ASDA’s health strategy, identifying high-impact interventions, and conducting exploratory research with Asda customers. Promising ideas will then be designed and trialled in Asda stores and online, with successful interventions scaled across Asda locations to maximise reach and impact.

Parita Doshi, deputy director of healthy life at Nesta, said: ""With rising obesity levels across the UK, food retailers have an important role to play in empowering people to make healthier choices through the environment that many people buy their groceries. Through this exciting collaboration with Asda we will be able to explore win-win innovations to improve diets and showcase ways that commercial interests can be pursued hand in hand with promoting healthier eating."

Kris Comerford, Chief Commercial Officer at Asda said: "The health of our nation is an incredibly important issue and Asda recognises the role we have to play in supporting our customers' budgets and health. Our partnership with Nesta will support the development of our health strategy and underlines our commitment to ensuring we offer a wide range of healthy, affordable choices for our customers as part of our ongoing strategy for growth.”

The partnership runs from September 2023 to September 2025. This follows a collaboration between Asda and the Leeds Institute for Data Analytics (LIDA).

About Nesta

We are Nesta, the UK's innovation agency for social good. We design, test and scale solutions to society's biggest problems. Our three missions are to give every child a fair start, help people live healthy lives, and create a sustainable future where the economy works for both people and the planet.

For over 20 years, we have worked to support, encourage and inspire innovation. We work in three roles: as an innovation partner working with frontline organisations to design and test new solutions, as a venture builder supporting new and early-stage businesses, and as a system shaper creating the conditions for innovation.

Harnessing the rigour of science and the creativity of design, we work relentlessly to change millions of lives for the better. Find out more at nesta.org.uk

About Asda

Headquartered in Leeds, ASDA is the UK’s third-largest supermarket by market share. Employing more than 145,000 colleagues, it serves over 15m customers every week in over 640 stores located around the UK and online via www.ASDA.com.

With roots dating back to a family business in the 1920’s in West Yorkshire, Asda was founded in 1965 through the merger of the Asquith family grocery business with the Associated Dairies company - its name is derived from this merger.

Asda’s primary operations include the sales of groceries, clothing, general merchandise and fuel. The launch of Asda Express in 2022 formed part of Asda’s long-term strategy to become the UK’s second largest supermarket by establishing a presence in the fast-growing convenience sector.