Tesco yesterday completed the removal of all sweets and chocolates from its checkouts after announcing the move last year.

Confectionery disappeared from checkouts at its larger stores in 1994, but for the first time unhealthy treats have been removed from checkouts at all its stores, including Tesco Metro and Express convenience outlets, which number around 2,000. The move is part of the chain’s efforts to help its customers lead healthier lives.

David Wood, Managing Director of Health and Wellness for Tesco said: "Our customers told us that removing sweets and chocolates from checkouts would help them make healthier choices, so from today our checkouts will be sweet and chocolate-free zones.

“We hope this will make our customer’s lives easier, as taking sweets and chocolates off the checkouts will really help parents with young children. The response we’ve had from parents has been overwhelmingly positive, so it’ll be interesting to see if other supermarkets follow our lead and do the same thing.”

Sweets and chocolates have been replaced by a variety of healthier snacks including dried fruit, nuts and cereal bars. Every food item that’s on the checkout at Tesco stores will either be one of your five a day, have no ‘red’ traffic light ratings, be in calorie-controlled snack packs, or be deemed by the Department of Health to be a ‘healthier snack’.