To tackle the obesity epidemic, legislation to prohibit the promotion of food and drinks judged to be High in Fat, Salt or Sugar (HFSS), will come into effect in the UK later this year.
Retailers that sell food and drink will no longer be able to place HFSS products at store entrances, aisle ends, checkouts or online equivalents (entry pages, landing pages and shopping basket or payment pages). In addition, volume price restrictions will prohibit retailers from offering price promotions such as ‘buy-one-get-one-free’ or ‘3 for 2’ offers on HFSS products.
Sainsbury’s is already trialling removing promotion bays to aisles. Tesco is rolling out healthier aisle end promotions across some stores and it has introduced new ‘under 100 calories’ sections across multiple locations. The retailer has created dedicated bays offering low-calorie versions of unhealthy foods such as sweets, children’s cereal and crisps. Tesco debuted its first healthy food-only store which will only offer healthy products with no foods high in fat, salt or sugar available.