Supermarkets defend early Easter egg push

Anaseini Taufa stocks shelves with Easter eggs at Countdown. Photo / Jason Dorday.

It's not egg-sactly what you'd expect to see on the shelves in January, but retailers are defending their early stocking of Easter eggs and hot-cross buns.

Old favourites such as Cadbury Creme Eggs and small chocolate eggs went on sale last Monday at Countdown, Foodtown and Woolworths supermarkets almost three months before Easter.

Luke Schepen, spokesman for their parent company Progressive Enterprises, said in-store bakers had been making hot-cross buns since the start of the month.

Schepen said customers liked "sneaky" treats in the lead-up to Easter, with many asking for them before they went on sale.

"It comes down to the simple fact that customers really like them."

Another motivation for stocking hot-cross buns early was that for every packet sold, five cents was donated to help children in hospital.

Boxed Easter eggs will go on sale at the supermarkets from late March.

Mission Nutrition nutritionist Claire Turnbull said having Easter eggs on sale so long before the occasion encouraged overindulgence in high-fat foods.

"Treat foods have become normalised. It's the constant availability and promotion of these foods that is a problem."

The trend was a "significant contributor to our high saturated fat intake" and weight-related health problems.

A 60kg person would have to walk for 29 minutes or jog for 15 to burn off the 183 calories in a Cadbury Creme Egg, she said.

Father Craig Dunford, of St Mary's Catholic Parish in Northcote, on Auckland's North Shore, said the early sale of treat foods had changed the focus of religious celebrations for some.