Restricting promotions of food and drink: Our response
FDF Scotland has responded to the Scottish Government's statement on restricting promotions of food and drink high in fat, sugar, or salt.
The FDF believes food and drink promotions bring varied and significant benefits to consumers, retailers and manufacturers. The benefits to consumers are significant; they reduce the cost of food and enable new innovations and brands to be brought to the market.
We do not believe that bans on promotion of certain food and drinks should be introduced. There is very limited evidence to suggest that this would help to reduce childhood obesity.
Promotional restrictions would limit companies’ ability to bring many reformulated and smaller portioned products to the market. This will pose a real threat to companies trying to launch healthier products in line with Government reformulation programmes.
The FDF continues to engage with Government to highlight concerns and seek clarity on the HFSS promotional restrictions, which came into force in England in October 2022 (location restrictions) and will be extended in October 2025 (to include multibuy restrictions). The Welsh and Scottish Governments have now consulted on equivalent measures in their respective countries, and are due to announce their final policies in 2023.
Toolkit: HFSS toolkit
13 July 2023
This toolkit brings together key resources to help you navigate regulations relating to food and drink high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS).
Read moreWebinar: What’s next for advertising and promotion of HFSS products across the UK?
25 July 2023
Are you confused by the complex regulations that affect the advertising and promotion of your HFSS products? This webinar, recorded live on 25th July 2023, includes presentations from speakers with extensive experience in helping companies interpret regulation in this area
Read moreUpdates
HFSS Webinar Recording: What's next for advertising and promotion of HFSS products across the UK
This FDF webinar sets out current and forthcoming regulations on HFSS advertising and promotions across the UK. Speakers include Welsh Government, Scottish Government, the Committee on Advertsing Practice and industry experts.
The recording and slides are available here.
Sponsored by Levercliff - Category consultants in food and drink
Government announces delay to HFSS volume promotions in England
The Government has announced that the HFSS volume promotions policy for England will be delayed until October 2025. This brings the implementation timeframe of this Regulation in line with the implementation of further restrictions for HFSS advertising.
The Government press release notes that this decision has been made in light of the current cost of living crisis and to support businesses to provide affordable food for consumers.
There will be a consultation on amending the implementation date in the Statutory Instrument (SI) in July and the SI will be laid in September when the House returns.
BRC Update the HFSS guidance on products in and out of scope
The British Retail Consotium (BRC) has updated their category guidance detailing categories in and out of scope of the HFSS promotional restrictions. Please find a link to the updated guidance here. BRC are reviewing this monthly, if you have any questions please contact FDF or BRC directly.
Please note that FDF has also produced a HFSS Toolkit for members, which is available here.
Legislation laid to delay volume based promotional restrictions by 12 months
On 29 September, Government laid an amending Statutory Instrument (SI), specifying that the volume based promotion (e.g. ‘buy one get one free’) regulations will come into force on 1st October 2023. The amending SI was laid using negative procedure in accordance with the Food Safety Act 1990, under which the regulations were made. The SI can be found here.
This SI does not change the timings of the promotional location restrictions, which will come into force on 1 October 2022. They require businesses with 50 or more employees to restrict the selling of foods that are high in fat, sugar or salt in key locations including checkouts, aisle ends, store entrances and their online equivalents.
For more information, please see our HFSS toolkit for members.
Webinar on understanding the HFSS promotional location regulations
New Regulations on the placement of foods high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) will come into force on 1 October 2022. This webinar (held on 7 June 2022) provides guidance from FDF and the British Retail Consortium to help your business prepare. It includes advice on:
- Whether your business will be liable
- How to identify if your products are in scope
- How to calculate the nutrient profiling model ‘HFSS’ score
Future Milestones
News
Urgent action from First Minister demanded
FDF Scotland has written to the First Minister setting out the urgent action needed to support Scotland’s food and drink manufacturers.
Report: Celebrating Food and Nutrition Report 2023
11 September 2023
The FDF and our members are committed to developing healthier products and have made substantial progress to date. This is not straightforward but is one of the most important measures food producers can take to improve the nations' health.
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