Full list of supermarkets where parents can get free fruit and veg worth up to £442 a year including Tesco and Asda

IF you’ve got a child under four years old, or you’re more than ten weeks pregnant, you may be eligible to get free fruit, vegetables, milk and other items.

The Healthy Start scheme gives parents free cash every four weeks to help them buy healthy foods.

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You get £4.25 for each week of your pregnancy from the tenth week onwards until your child is born.

Then, you’ll get £8.50 a week until your baby reaches their first birthday.

After that, you go back to receiving £4.25 a week until your child’s fourth birthday.

The money is loaded onto prepaid cards, which you can then use to buy specific items at a wide range of supermarkets and shops.

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Which supermarkets accept Healthy Start cards?

The cards can be used at any retailer that accepts Mastercard and sells eligible healthy food and milk items.

That includes: 

• supermarkets
• convenience stores
• grocery stores
• drug stores and pharmacies
• markets
• dairy products stores
• news dealers, newsstands, and convenience stores
• freezer and locker meat provisioners (such as butcher shops)
• petrol stations

Unfortunately, you cannot use the vouchers for online shopping.

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The shop does not have to have signed up to the Healthy Start scheme - as long as it sells the right sort of items and can accept a Mastercard, you can use your card there.

That includes every major supermarket in the UK.

The full list of UK supermarkets that should accept the cards is:

• Aldi
• Amazon Fresh
• Asda
• Booths
• B&M
• Co-op
• Farmfoods
• Iceland
• Lidl
• Marks and Spencer
• Morrisons
• Proudfoot
• Sainsbury’s
• Tesco
• Waitrose

But there are also thousands of corner shops across the country that are also eligible, including Costcutter, NISA, and Spar chains.

If you’re not sure whether the shop takes Mastercard, it should have the Mastercard symbol on display, usually on the shop door or at the till. 

If you can’t see a symbol, ask an employee whether they accept Mastercard cards.

The foods that a shop must sell to qualify are:

Fruit and vegetables

• fresh or frozen or tinned
• whole or chopped
• packaged or loose
• fruit in fruit juice, or fruit or vegetables in water
• fresh, dried or tinned pulses

They must not have added ingredients like fat (oil), salt, sugar or flavourings, such as tinned tomatoes and herbs, kidney beans in chilli sauce, chips or onion rings.

You also cannot use the vouchers to buy juiced or pre-cooked fruits in syrup, or smoothies.

Plain cow’s milk

Milk should be plain cow’s milk, which is pasteurised, sterilised, long-life or ultra-heat treated (UHT).

It must not be flavoured, coloured, evaporated, condensed, plant-based or powdered (unless it’s stage one infant formula).

Infant formula

This must be labelled as suitable from birth and made from cow’s milk. It should not be a follow-on formula or milk.

You should only use the card to buy foods on this list.

If you’re buying a big shop, you can split it into two transactions, so the included healthy elements are paid on your Healthy Start card and you pay for the rest yourself.

You can’t use the card online, outside of the UK, on your phone’s wallet app, to withdraw cash from a cashpoint, or to get cashback.

You also can’t use it in non-qualifying locations, such as fast food restaurants.

Who is eligible for a Healthy Start card?

To qualify, you typically need to receive other benefits. These include:

• Universal Credit – your family’s take home pay must be less than £408 a month from employment
• Child Tax Credit - your family’s annual income must be £16,190 or less, and you cannot receive Working Tax Credit.
• Income Support
• Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
• Pension Credit (which includes the child addition)
• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)

You’ll also qualify if you’re under 18 and you’re more than ten weeks pregnant or have a child under four – even if you’re not receiving any other benefits.

How to apply for a Healthy Start card

You can apply online through the if you get Child Tax Credits or Universal Credit.

Otherwise, you’ll need to either email [email protected] or call 0300 330 7010.

The card should arrive within 10 working days, but the NHS warns it could take longer if there are a high volume of applications at once.

The card will arrive fully loaded with your first payment with instructions on how to activate it.

The first time you use it, you’ll need to use your pin, but you should be able to use it contactless after that.

Future payments will load automatically on your card every four weeks.

If you need help, or to report your card lost or stolen or get a reminder of your pin or balance, you can ring 0300 330 2090.

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This phone line is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

When you use contactless four times in a row, or spend £150 in combined transactions, you’ll need to use your PIN on the next transaction. This is to help keep your card secure.

Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing [email protected].

Plus, you can join our Facebook group to share your tips and stories