Internet Retailing quotes Rachel Bell on advertising restrictions for foods high in fat, salt and sugar

A decision by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to ban adverts by Lidl and Iceland has shown that the UK’s long‑anticipated restrictions on advertising foods high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) are now being actively enforced. Announced on 15 April, the ASA rulings make Lidl and Iceland the first supermarkets to be formally sanctioned under the new regulatory regime, which came into force on 5 January 2026 as part of the government’s strategy to address childhood obesity.

Under the HFSS rules, advertising is restricted where a product falls within one of 13 specified categories – including confectionery, pastries, pizzas, ice creams and certain ready meals – and fails the nutrient profiling model, which assesses levels of sugar, salt and saturated fat. The recent rulings demonstrate how this assessment can be difficult to navigate without robust internal processes. Indeed, these cases show that brand‑led advertising, while permitted in principle, risks becoming non‑compliant where individual HFSS products can be identified.

For retailers, the decisions raise practical questions around governance and compliance, including how HFSS sign‑off is managed internally, whether marketing, ecommerce and media teams are working from consistent data, and how confidently businesses can ensure alignment between product information, creative content, and automated advertising activity.

Rachel Bell, Senior Associate in our Commercial team, comments in Internet Retailing: 

The ASA enforcement actions against Lidl and Iceland serve as a timely reminder that businesses must have robust compliance processes in place in respect of advertising relating to HFSS products.

Processes, especially those around nutrient profile information, need to be kept under regular review, particularly where new products are launched or existing formulations are changed in a way that may bring them within scope of the restrictions.

Read the full article in Internet Retailing here.