ScotGov publish consultation on restricting promotions for food and drink high in fat, sugar, or salt (HFSS)
On Tuesday 27th February, the Scottish Government opened a consultation on restricting the promotion of HFSS food and drink.
This consultation will run until 21st May and seeks views on the detail of proposed regulations to restrict the promotion of HFSS foods where they are sold to the public, including across retail and out of home settings.
The proposed food categories within the scope of promotions include soft drinks with added sugar, savoury snacks, breakfast cereals, confectionary, ice creams and ice lollies, cakes and cupcakes, morning goods, pizza, roast potatoes and chips, deserts and puddings, sweetened yoghurt and ready meals.
The scope of the proposed restrictions include:
Price restrictions: multi-buys, temporary price reductions, meal deals.
Location restrictions: checkout areas, end of aisle; front of store, and island/bin displays.
Businesses in scope
Both price and location restrictions (both instore and online) will only apply to qualifying businesses with 50 or more employees. Including symbol groups, multiples and franchises.
Stores with a relevant floor area of less than 185.8 square metres (2,000 square feet) would not be within the scope of the location restrictions. However, they will still have to comply with restrictions around price promotions such as multi-buys, if they have more than 50 employees.
The Scottish Government have also published a press release and a Business Regulatory Impact Assessment alongside the consultation.
SGF will respond to this consultation in due course, and we encourage members to also take up the opportunity to do this.