Foodlaw-Reading

Dr David Jukes, The University of Reading, UK

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Food Law News - UK - 2022

DHSC Publication, 6 April 2022

NUTRITION - Guidance: Restricting promotions of products high in fat, sugar or salt by location and by volume price: implementation guidance

DHSC Guidance Restricting promotions of products high in fat, sugar or salt by location and by volume price: implementation guidance

The Guidance has been published as a web page. A copy of the page in pdf format is available on this site (click on image). An additional Annex B in pdf format was published with a copy on this site: Annex B Enforcement Flowchart.

Provided under the Open Government Licence. The original document was accessed from:v

The Regulations can be accessed on the UK Legislation site - see: SI 2021, No. 1368 - Food (Promotion and Placement) (England) Regulations 2021. They come into effect on the 1 October 2022. The following is taken from the opening sections of the Guidace:

This guidance document has been developed to:

Legal status

The regulations provide for restrictions on the promotions and placement in retail stores and their online equivalents of certain foods and drinks that are high in fat, salt or sugar (HFSS) or ‘less healthy’.

While this guidance has been produced to help illustrate how the regulations work, it should be read in conjunction with the regulations themselves. The text should not be taken as an authoritative statement or interpretation of the law, as only the courts have this power.

Every effort has been made to ensure that this guidance is as helpful as possible. However, it is ultimately the responsibility of individual businesses to ensure their compliance with the law.

Intended audience

This guidance is aimed primarily at those affected by the provisions in the regulations, such as:

This guidance, and the regulations to which it refers, applies to businesses operating in and selling to England.

Introduction

The government consulted in 2019 on restricting the promotion of HFSS products by volume price (for example, multibuy offers such as ‘buy one get one free’) and location, both online and in store.

The government then consulted on technical enforcement of the restrictions in 2020.

Following these consultations, the government introduced legislation to restrict the promotion of HFSS products by volume price (for example, ‘buy one get one free’) and location, both online and in store in England. (HFSS is otherwise known as ‘less healthy food and drink’ and is referred to as such in the nutrient profiling technical guidance 2011.) These regulations will come into force on 1 October 2022.

Evidence shows that food retail price promotions are widespread and effective at influencing food preferences and purchases (particularly for children). Previous reports recommended that reducing and rebalancing promotions towards healthier food and drink is essential to help reduce children’s sugar and calorie intakes, and help tackle obesity.

Furthermore, the shopping environment plays an important part in the way products are marketed to us, with simple factors such as the location of products within stores significantly affecting what we buy. The current retail promotional environment:

Compliance by industry with the promotion and placement regulations can significantly improve our food environment by ensuring healthier food is more easily accessible and more visible in shops, ultimately supporting people to lead healthier lives.

This guidance helps to illustrate how the regulations restrict promotions of HFSS or ‘less healthy’ products by:

These restrictions apply to medium and large businesses (with 50 employees or more). Failure to comply with regulations may result in a business being issued with an improvement notice and subsequently a fixed monetary penalty if compliance is not achieved as required.

In addition to our duty under the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008 (RESA) to review the regulations, the government is also required to undertake a further post-implementation review of the regulations every 5 years and publish a report setting out the conclusions of the review.

For the previous news item on this topic, see:

See also:


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