The Government has announced that advertising restrictions which were previously set to accompany the HFSS (high fat, salt, sugar) regulations will be delayed until January 5, 2026, to account for changes to the way that brands are classified in adverts.
In a written ministerial statement to Parliament, the Government has confirmed that the legal requirement for brands to stop advertising HFSS products online at any time and on television between 5:30am and 9pm will be introduced in January, but that there is a commitment from the industry to start complying from October this year.
The delay is due to a change in the rules which will allow brands that are typically associated with HFSS products to advertise other products and commitments like healthy eating initiatives. Government intends to make and lay a Statutory Instrument (SI) to explicitly exempt "brand advertising" from the restrictions.
Upcoming restrictions on HFSS promotions in shops (the Food (Promotion and Placement) (England) Regulations 2021) will continue as planned in October 2025.
The rules will mean that regardless of store size, retailers with 50 or more employees (symbol groups counted as an entire business not as an individual store) will have to stop multibuy and volume promotions for HFSS products.
Examples of volume promotions and multibuys are promotions like "50 per cent extra free”, "buy one get one free" and “three for £10". This follows the location restrictions which were introduced in 2022.
ACS chief executive James Lowman said: “For convenience retailers, there is no change to the preparations they should be making to comply with HFSS regulations.
"The delay to the online and TV advertising ban announced today has no impact on the volume promotions restrictions scheduled for 1 October 2025. We urge retailers to review our comprehensive Assured Advice detailing the steps they need to take to comply.”
ACS’ Assured Advice on HFSS regulations is available here: https://cdn.acs.org.uk/public/Assured%20Advice%20Guides/2025/HFSS%20-%20ACS%20Assured%20Advice.pdf
The Written Ministerial Statement from the Government on the delay to advertising restrictions is available here: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2025-05-22/hcws652
