A timeline of HFSS restrictions: From nutrient profiling model to advertising clampdown

December 2005

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) publishes a nutrient profiling model to differentiate unhealthy foods. It’s intended to help Ofcom improve the balance of advertising to children. At the time, 80% of expenditure on kids ads was HFSS food.

April 2007

Ofcom introduces broadcasting restrictions to reduce the exposure of children to television advertising of unhealthy foods. The rules restrict television advertising of HFSS from programmes and channels aimed at children aged under 16.

January 2011

The Department of Health releases more technical guidance to determine HFSS foods. It uses a ‘simple’ scoring system where points are allocated on the basis of a product’s nutrient content, building on the model from 2005.

October 2015

A Public Health England report blames the UK’s obesity crisis on supermarkets and their promotions of high-sugar foods, discovering the industry spent £256m promoting unhealthy food in 2014. The sector denies the claims.

March 2016

David Cameron abandons the ‘nudge’ approach, announcing a soft drinks levy will begin from April 2018 to tax sugar-sweetened soft drinks. Six months earlier, No. 10 argued there were “more effective ways of tackling” obesity.

January 2018

The HFSS laws in their current form emerge for the first time as Theresa May launches a consultation on restricting volume-based price promotions of HFSS food and drink, and placements at prominent store locations.

July 2020

Boris Johnson launches a new Obesity Strategy for the UK after a spell in intensive care with Covid. The measures include banning unhealthy food adverts, ending buy one, get one free promotions, and calorie labelling in restaurants.

November 2020

A consultation is launched on totally restricting online advertising of HFSS products. It comes soon after the government confirmed its intention to introduce a 9pm watershed on TV for any HFSS advertising.

December 2020

The government says the HFSS restrictions will come into force from April 2022, giving the industry 16 months to prepare. The industry says detail is lacking, for example about what sized stores to which the rules will apply.

July 2021

The government delays the restrictions on HFSS foods by six months to October 2022 after strong lobbying from industry, Supermarket bosses argued the scale of change required to store layouts made the existing timeline “impossible”.

April 2022

New detailed guidance clarifies many unknown questions around the rules, including what sized businesses are in scope and how it will be enforced. However, many businesses say it is still unclear exactly which products are out of scope.

May 2022

The clampdown on in-store promotions and junk food advertising are delayed by 12 months to October 2023 and January 2024 respectively. It comes as manufacturers continue to press for the plans to be shelved completely.

August 2022

Liz Truss vows to scrap HFSS rules if she wins the Conservative leadership contest. “Those taxes are over. Talking about whether or not somebody should buy a two-for-one offer? No. There is definitely enough of that,” she tells the Mail.

13 September 2022

Truss’s government is reported to be reviewing its entire anti-obesity strategy, including the HFSS rules starting in less than three weeks. Investors, campaigners and Tory MPs all slam the plans and call on Truss to stick the course.

29 September 2022

The government lays down a statutory instrument in parliament to underpin the ban on HFSS promotions in prominent locations, set to begin in two days’ time. Campaigners fear the move could still be reversed.

1 October 2022

The ban begins on HFSS products in prominent store locations. However some sources claim a review is still ongoing into the long-term future of the rules. It remains unclear when a decision will be confirmed by the government.

1 October 2023

The ban begins on HFSS promotions such as bogof. The move was confirmed in the statutory instrument. As of October 2022, there are almost 2,000 HFSS multibuy promotions across the top five retailers (see above).

1 January 2024

The ban is set to begin on advertising HFSS foods online and on TV before 9pm. However, unlike the other two bans in October 2022 and 2023, there has so far been no legal instrument to confirm it will still go ahead under the Truss government.