How to market less healthy foods and respect the regulations

New regulations restricting the advertising and promotion of less healthy foods (LHFs) affect how you can market these products. Iona Silverman and Emma Bacon from the IP & Media team at Freeths outline how to keep your advertising and promotions within the rules and still have impact.

Be aware of what a less healthy food is

An LHF is any food or drink in one of the 13 product categories set out in the regulations – savoury snacks or breakfast cereals for example – and that scores four or above for food or one or above for drinks on the Food Standards Agency’s  Nutrient Profiling Model (NPM). The NPM weighs up the beneficial nutrients in a product such as those from fruit, vegetables, nuts, fibre and protein against ingredients of concern, which include contribute more sugar, saturated fat or salt. There are exceptions within the 13 categories, and a number of products are exempt because they're already subject to their own regulatory regimes: infant formula, food supplements and alcohol for example. The bottom line is that most processed foods are caught by the new regulations.

Know what the promotions regulations ban

From 1 October 2025, volume price promotions – multibuys, extra free or financial incentives (including loyalty points) – are no longer allowed for LHFs. The aim is to disincentive consumers from buying (and consuming) more than they need.. The promotions regulations don’t apply to businesses with fewer than 50 employees, but this excludes franchises. Restaurants are excluded from the promotions regulations so can still offer a free dessert, for example, but can't offer free refills of sugary drinks. 

Diversify your offers to maintain sales

You can still offer discounts, including money off coupons, on LHFs as long as you don't incentivise people to buy more. Meal deals and dine in for two type offers that include LHFs are still allowed, as are free samples. Spend £50 get £5 off type offers are more complicated. In the absence of guidance from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to the contrary, our view is that for these to be allowed they may have to exclude LHFs, meaning retailers should consider changing loyalty schemes to focus on healthier options.

Understand the advertising regulations

From 5 January 2026, there will be a ban on the advertising of identifiable, LHF or drink products on television and on-demand services between 5.30am and 9pm, and in online, paid-for advertising at any time. Unlike the promotions regulations, the TV and online ad restrictions apply across the UK and to restaurants and pubs. Businesses with fewer than 250 employees are excluded. Although the ASA can't enforce the restrictions until January, most brands have voluntarily complied with them since 1 October. Online paid-for advertising includes influencer marketing, paid ads in banners and on social media. However it excludes SEO and organic social media posts from brands’ own accounts. Notably the ban only applies to advertising of identifiable LHFs – companies can still advertise their headline brand as long as it isn’t itself an identifiable LHF brand.

Shift the focus to your brand

The regulations allow ads which promote a brand without explicitly referring to or featuring LHF products. A supermarket or restaurant chain can therefore run adverts promoting the brand, as long as no LHFs are featured and the brand name is not the name of a specific LHF. We expect to see a lot more brand-led and story-led advertising without featuring the particular LHFs that the brands sell, because of this distinction between brand and product ads. For brand advertising to be permitted, the name of the commercial entity must have been established before 16 July 2025. 

Grasp the impact on online advertising

Paid-for social media advertising promoting LHFs is not allowed. Boosted posts and sponsored content, influencer collaborations, and even unpaid gifting, are prohibited if they result in promotional content for LHFs. Paid-for listings on aggregator services, paid-for banner ads, paid-for video ads, sponsored links, paid-for online newsletters, paid-for in-game or in-app ads are all banned. If it’s paid-for, sponsored, boosted or promoted, it’s not allowed. 

Go organic

Organic posts by brands on their own social media accounts are still permitted, so we expect to see brands advertising in a more direct way. SEO isn't affected by the advertising regulations, so will become more important and brands will invest heavily in content optimisation to maintain their online presence. We also anticipate more of a focus on earned media and PR.

Invest in out-of-home and audio advertising

Out-of-home including digital out-of-home, radio, podcast and music streaming advertising services have powerful reach and are still allowed, so make use of them.

Change your products

Reformulating products so they are no longer caught by the restrictions isn’t easy, but it is an option.

Audit your existing campaigns

Check what campaigns you have coming up, and update your internal processes and guidelines so that everybody across the business is aware of the new regulations.

Stay updated

Look out for the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP)’s full guidance which is expected soon and sign up for Freeths’ retail and consumer horizon scanner.