October was originally supposed to see a major change to food labelling: the abolition of deals on unhealthy food. However, this law hasn’t quite been realised in the way it was originally intended.
Obesity has been a major issue in the UK for many years now, with an average of 68% of men and 60% of women being overweight or obese. To counteract this, the government are tackling unhealthy food advertising, and in July 2021 laid out a plan to reduce accessibility to certain foods. However, due to country-wide economical struggles, these plans have been temporarily adapted.
What Was the Proposed Law?
The original plan was that in October 2022, shops and supermarkets would no longer be allowed to offer savings on unhealthy food and drink. This would include the end of fizzy drink refills in dine-in areas of supermarkets, and a large reduction in the number of foods that buy one get one free deals could apply to. Not only this, but there would be a reconsideration on where sweets and soft drinks are allowed to be placed in stores.
In fact, any food and drink high in fat, sugar, and salt (HFSS) is on the unhealthy food list, and promotions on any of these were to be massively restricted as of October 2022. The new law would apply to any business of 50 or more employees, covering any ‘medium and large’ businesses across the UK.
The idea behind the proposition was that by 2047 (25 years’ time), approximately £60 million would be saved nationwide in health benefits. In theory, when it came to healthy and unhealthy foods, the healthier food choice would become the easier food choice in medium and large retailers.
What’s Happened Instead?
Since the idea was originally passed by the government in July 2021, the economical state of the UK has drastically changed. The law has now been delayed twice, the most recent being September 29th, 2022, when the government decided that the current cost of living crisis meant that too many people would be relying on these deals to feed their families.
Instead, a law was passed in line with the economical crisis to reduce the plan to only remove unhealthy food and drink from locations where customers are more likely to impulse buy, for example, next to the tills or the entrance of a shop. While this was part of the original plan, too, the rest has temporarily been delayed due to the nationwide cost of living crisis.
Get It Right with Label Source
Here at Label Source, we supply a number of kitchen signs and wider safety signs to make sure that when food labelling and monitoring is concerned, we can provide the signage to keep the environment safe.
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