Today, French people consume an average of 70 grams of sugar per day, which is the equivalent of 14 coffee spoons. Sugar overconsumption can trigger many health problems like diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular diseases; which is why The World Health Organisation recommends to reduce our sugar intake down by half. However, this is more easily said than done. Sugar is hidden in our everyday food products and we don’t even realise it. Moreover, health experts have proven the addictive effect of sugar on our brain and body, we just can’t quit all of a sudden.

But even though this overconsumption is at the core of the French preoccupations and has been all over the French media, no food retailer had ever done something to truly enable people to change their behaviour and overcome this bad habit, yet.

Intermarché is the third French food retailer and is the only one to manufacture its products in its own production units. As such, we have the capability to change and improve the composition of our products. This unique marketing and business strategy is translated in our positioning: “Producteur-Commercant” (“Manufacturer-Retailer”). As such, our goal is to prove that this competitive edge is key to solve societal food issues and enhance the quality of food overall.

This is why we believe that we were the only one able to fix this sugar issue and change the game in the category. We’ve worked directly with our Saint-Père-en-Retz’s dairy production unit (and its R&D division) to give life to a new product that would help people decrease the amount of sugar they are eating, step by step: THE SUGAR DETOX. A program of 6 chocolate yogurts with a decreasing amount of sugar in each cup. Day after day, people would eat a less and less sugary yogurt recipe and progressively “detox” their palate. The last cup contained 50% less sugar that the original, but was as tasty.