Food law | UK Regulatory Outlook February 2025

Government responds to the House of Lords Food, Diet and Obesity Committee’s  

As reported in our October Regulatory Outlook, the House of Lords Food, Diet and Obesity Committee published a report calling on the government to develop a new, long-term strategy to fix our food system which it describes as "broken". The recommendations for the government in the report, 'Recipe for health: a plan to fix our broken food system', included introducing mandatory front-of-pack nutrition labelling that clearly distinguishes healthier and less healthy products. It recommended banning location and price promotions of high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) food and drink by out-of-home businesses with more than 50 employees – and, if practicable, for smaller out-of-home businesses and franchise premises. 

The government has now responded to the report and each of the recommendations put forward by the committee. However, the response did not commit to introducing the committee's recommendations. For those regarding HFSS, the government reiterated its commitment to restricting advertising of HFSS food and drink from October 2025 and highlighted existing promotion restrictions. While acknowledging that more work can be done, the response did not provide details of further reforms. 

In regards to front-of-pack labelling, the government said it will continue to review the evidence . It will also consider with devolved governments whether further action is needed in the future. Additionally, the government will continue to review implications of mandatory reduction and reformulation salt, sugar and calories targets which the committee's report recommended should be legislated. The report reaffirms the government's intention to ban the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to children under the age of 16. 

Furthermore, the response confirms that the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is developing an "ambitious" food strategy aimed at tackling obesity, maintaining food security, protecting supply chains, driving investment, and reducing the impact of farming on nature and biodiversity. Further information on the Defra strategy will be published soon. 

Overall, while the government acknowledges the need for action in various areas, it stops short of committing to all the specific recommendations made by the committee. Nonetheless, businesses should continue to prepare for the incoming HFSS restrictions coming into effect in October 2025 as well as keeping abreast of developments in regards to the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks. 

CAP to revise guidance for less healthy food and drink advertising restrictions 

On 13 January 2025, the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) published an update on where they are in finalising the guidance for implementing the new restrictions for ads for "less healthy" food and drink (LHF) products coming in from October 2025. 

CAP said that the consultation process made it rethink its guidance. The advertising regulator considered that some parts of the previously proposed guidance required revision, particularly relating to brand advertising. CAP has now published and is running a further consultation on the revised guidance, which clarifies that ads may still be restricted by law even if they do not explicitly feature a LHF product. The determination will be based on whether a less healthy product is "identifiable", which will be judged on a case-by-case basis. The consultation closes on 18 March 2025.  

Businesses should review the revised guidance and decide whether they wish to respond to the consultation. If these amendments are introduced by CAP then more ads could be classed as promoting an LHF product and thus restricted under the new law.  

See the Advertising section for more.  

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