Restricting Retail Food Promotions: implementation challenges could limit policy success

New plans to restrict point-of-sale promotions of less healthy foods and drinks in England, aim to encourage healthier choices. With responsibility for implementation likely falling to food retailers, it is important to understand feasibility challenges, to ensure policy success.

Researchers found the data available to retailers to be insufficient to apply the rules set out by the policy proposal. This would see some products incorrectly promoted, and vice versa.

We recommend a review of the legislative basis to establish rules which align public health benefit with data feasibility. Government support is needed, in the form of a free-to-use tool for consistent automated product assessment, and development of a data sharing platform, accessible to industry and the legislator.