Meet the HFSS promotion and placement rules

The rules here are for England.

Businesses the rules cover

The rules apply to a business that sells prepacked food to consumers, in store or online, and had 50 or more employees on the first day of its financial year. A franchisee counts as part of the franchisor's business, so a franchise or symbol group store is covered when the franchise as a whole has 50 or more employees.

Restaurants, cafes and other out-of-home businesses, care homes and educational institutions are outside the placement and multibuy rules, even when they sell prepacked food. The free refill rule still applies to restaurants.

Products the rules cover

A product is caught if it falls in one of the food categories listed in Schedule 1 to the regulations, such as soft drinks with added sugar, breakfast cereals, confectionery, cakes and pizza, and it counts as less healthy under the 2011 nutrient profiling technical guidance. Score each product in a listed category to find out.

Where you cannot place less healthy food

From 1 October 2022, in a store with a relevant floor area of 185.8m² (2,000 sq ft) or more, you must not place a less healthy product:

• within 2 metres of a checkout or a marked queuing area, unless it is inside an aisle
• at the end of an aisle that faces a main customer route, or on a stand, bin or clip strip within 50cm of that aisle end
• near a public entrance to the main shopping area, up to 15 metres from it in larger stores
• in a covered area the public passes through to get in, such as a foyer or lobby

Online, you must not offer a less healthy product on your home page, on a checkout page, in a pop-up the customer did not open, or while the customer is browsing or searching for other kinds of product. A page the customer opens to browse special offers is allowed.

Smaller stores, and specialist stores that sell mainly from one category such as a chocolatier or cake shop, are outside the placement rules. They must still follow the multibuy and free refill rules.

Promotions you cannot run

From 1 October 2025, you must not offer a less healthy product on a volume price promotion, in store or online. That means multibuys such as '3 for 2', '3 for £10' or 'buy 6 and save 25%', and offers that make part of a product free, such as 'buy one get one free' or '50% extra free'.

Stock already packed with a printed volume promotion could be sold for 12 months after 1 October 2025.

You must not offer free refills of a less healthy soft drink that is not prepacked, such as a fountain drink.

Checks and penalties

Your local authority enforces the rules. If you break them, it can serve an improvement notice telling you what to change and by when. Ignoring the notice is an offence: the authority can impose a fixed penalty of £2,500, or prosecute, and a court can fine you.