HFSS Foods – How is Advertising Affected by the October 2025 Restrictions?
In the King’s Speech on 17th July 2024, the new UK government confirmed that it would go ahead with implementing the delayed HFSS food restrictions relating to live broadcast & on-demand television advertising, and paid-for online advertising.
This initiative is part of the government’s plan to tackle growing childhood obesity levels by reducing children’s exposure to marketing and promotion of HFSS products.
The government believes that the HFSS advertising restrictions – which currently only apply during Children’s TV programming – are insufficient to protect children from seeing a significant amount of unhealthy food adverts on TV, and do not account for the increasing amount of time children spend online.
When do the new, increased HFSS food advertising restrictions come into effect?
They will come into effect on 1st October 2025.
What do the television advertising restrictions cover?
Currently, the ban on UK television advertising of HFSS products is limited to during children’s television shows and other programmes of particular appeal to children (who therefore make up a high proportion of viewers).
From October 2025, the increased restrictions will ban advertising of HFSS products before the 9pm watershed (with the ban applying from 5:30am through to 9pm).
It will apply to ‘live broadcast’ television – and through all methods of delivery to homes, including transmission via aerial, satellite, cable, IPTV, and streaming services.
The 9pm watershed will also apply to all ‘on-demand’ programme services (ODPS) / programming delivered via streaming services or IPTV which are under the jurisdiction of the UK. Non-UK regulated ODPS will be included in the online advertising restrictions (see below) because they are outside UK jurisdiction.
What do the new online advertising restrictions cover?
The total ban applies to any form of paid-for online advertising to specifically promote identifiable HFSS products, but does not apply to brands’ ‘owned media’ which they control, such as a blog, website or social media channels.
Forms of paid-for online advertising include:
Display advertising, such as banner ads on news websites and apps, swipe to buy.
Video advertising, such as video ads served before or during on video sharing sites.
Social media advertising, such as in-feed advertising on social media.
Search listings, such as sponsored links on search engines.
Listings on price comparison or aggregator services, such as sponsored listings on food delivery services.
Influencer marketing, such as influencer posts paid for / sponsored by an advertiser.
In-game advertising, such as banner ads in games apps.
Newsletter advertising, such as banner ads in a cookery newsletter.
Advertisements distributed through web widgets, such as those located on the sidebar of websites.
In-game advertisements.
Advertorials.
Advergames.
Product specific sponsorship.
Are there any exemptions from these restrictions?
Yes, these are the exemptions:
Brand advertising / sponsorship which does not include an identifiable HFSS product (applies to both the 9pm TV watershed and online restrictions).
SMEs (businesses with 249 employees or less on the first day of the financial year) involved with the manufacture or sale of food or drink (applies to both the 9pm TV watershed and online restrictions). A franchise is to be treated as part of the franchisor business and is not separate for the purposes of determining the number of employees a business has. PLEASE NOTE: in a key difference, the separate HFSS restrictions regarding Volume Promotions and Product Placement instore apply to businesses with 50 employees or more.
Audio-only paid advertising, such as during podcasts (applies to online restrictions only).
Business-to-business advertising of wholesalers’ products to their customers (applies to online restrictions only).
Media supporting point of sale / purchase / transactional content (applies to online restrictions only).
Broadcast radio – along with other traditional media including print, outdoors, direct marketing and cinema – are outside the scope of the new restrictions.
PLEASE NOTE: the above information is only intended to act as a brief summary of the Government’s guidelines regarding the advertising ban. For further clarity, please visit these pages:
2019 & 2020 consultations outcome
Also, implementation guidance issued by the frontline regulator, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), provides further information on how this will work in practice. View the ASA guidance here.
What other HFSS restrictions are in place?
The delayed restrictions on Volume Promotions instore will also come into effect on 1st October 2025.
Alongside the current restrictions on Product Placement instore of HFSS products in large retailers such as supermarkets, the government will then have introduced all 3 of the HFSS restrictions originally proposed.
Which products does the HFSS advertising restriction apply to?
For a full list of the affected food and drink product categories, please visit this page.
How do I know if my products are classed as HFSS?
You need to use a HFSS score calculator, such as featured in our NutriCalc software (known as the Nutrient Profile Report). Foods that score 4 or more points, and drinks that score 1 or more points, are categorised as HFSS. Products are allocated points for the so-called ‘bad’ nutrients: energy, saturated fat, sugars and sodium. Points are then deducted for so-called ‘good’ nutrients: protein and fibre. And finally, there is a points deduction for the quantity of fruit, vegetables and nuts that the product contains.
How can I avoid these HFSS advertising restrictions for my products?
Using recipe product design, nutrition calculation & labelling products such as NutriCalc, food producers can check the HFSS score for their products and then if classed as HFSS, reformulate them to be non-HFSS (i.e. healthier), to avoid the restrictions. Find out how here.
NutriCalc highlights which nutrients are contributing to a product score classed as HFSS – such as containing high sugar content. Users can then identify which ingredients are contributing to this score and either replace them with a healthier alternate ingredient or reduce the existing ingredient amount.