Mercadona Promotes Healthy Eating, Tests In-Store Fresh Coffee

Spanish supermarket chain Mercadona is strengthening its commitment to healthy eating by catering to changing consumer habits.

The company is focusing on offering a balanced product selection through clearer nutritional labelling, healthier product compositions, portioned sizes, convenient formats, and recipe suggestions.

Last year, Mercadona updated labels on 500 products and plans to update over 2,500 more by 2025. These updates include standardized nutrition tables, larger fonts, clearer formatting, and per-serving nutritional information.

Mercadona is also working with suppliers to improve the nutritional value of its products, and has achieved a 30% sugar reduction in its chocolate oat drink.

The company is also offering more practical formats, like shelled nuts, and labels with cooking instructions for various methods of food preparation such as grill, oven, steam, and air fryer, among others.

The company’s ‘Your Balanced Basket’ initiative provides healthy eating suggestions and recipes.

Furthermore, Mercadona collaborates with consumer associations, organisations for those with dietary restrictions, nutritionists, and other health professionals to ensure their efforts are scientifically sound.

Coffee Areas

Mercadona, following a trend set by companies like Inditex, is testing in-store freshly ground coffee areas in 58 stores in the province of Valencia, reported daily El Economista.

Customers can currently choose from single espresso, coffee with milk, and cappuccino. The company plans to expand the pilot program to Madrid after the summer.

This move aligns with Mercadona president Juan Roig’s focus on prepared foods, as he believes kitchens will eventually become obsolete.

The growing prepared dish market (+6.6% in 2024), along with the increasing popularity of coffee, supports this strategy.

Similar to Mercadona’s approach, Inditex launched its Zacaffé coffee shop within a Zara store in Madrid.