Asda, Co-operative Food and Aldi have linked up with the Government’s Change4Life health initiative to offer customers discounts on healthy foods, in an attempt to tap into people’s New Year resolutions to change their lifestyle for the better.

Change4Life’s New Year’s new Supermeals campaign will offer money off healthy ingredients, such as fruit and veg and low fat yoghurts, across over a thousand supermarket stores up and down the country.

Ainsley Harriott is endorsing the campaign, and has written a foreword and two recipes for a Supermeals cookbook focusing on healthy meals for under £5. The Daily Mirror will carry 50,000 coupons redeemable for free copies at Asda, and another 50,000 copies will be given away for free to Change4Life supporters.

Four million recipe cards with quick healthy meal ideas will be distributed through Asda, health NGOs, press inserts and door drops to Change4Life supporters.

YouTube cooking tutorials with Ainsley Harriott will also be available on the Change4Life website.

Anne Milton, public health minister, says: “The New Year is a good time to think about losing weight. The Supermeals campaign will give us all some great ideas for balanced meals on a budget.”

Ainsley Harriott says: “This campaign is a great way to give people the tools and imagination they need to get back into the kitchen and give cooking a try. All you have to do is make an effort to sit down and pull together a simple meal plan and follow some handy cost effective recipe ideas from Change4Life.”

The Change4Life cookbook was created by Ebury Publishers in collaboration with literacy charity Quick Reads. The Supermeals recipes have been developed to be healthier versions of the nation’s favourite meals, based on recent research by Kantar Worldpanel Usage.