Some of the largest food companies have joined forces to slam UK government proposals that could see online junk food ads – including products high in fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) food – banned in Britain. 

Major F&B companies, such as PepsiCo, Britvic, the Kellogg Company, Mondelēz and Mars Wrigley co-signed the letter, penned by the UK Food and Drink Federation (FDF). It has been sent to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and flags their concerns over the “disproportionate” plans. 

The UK’s Department of Health and Social Care announced earlier this month that it is conducting a six-week consultation on a total ban on all online ads of HFSS foods to tackle childhood obesity. The move elicited industry reactions at the time, with more companies now making a case against it.

“The F&B sector supports the government’s public health policy objectives. Food and drink manufacturers will continue to reformulate their products and put healthier or smaller portioned products on the market,” an FDF representative tells FoodIngredientsFirst.

“However, we are greatly concerned by the timing of the recently launched public consultation proposing the option of a complete online advertising ban of a broad range of food and drink products. It is a disproportionate proposal with an impossibly short time period given for responses, given the level of technical detail sought,” the spokesperson notes.

FoodIngredientsFirst has reached out to several of the letter’s co-signatories for comment, with some declining to further elaborate. 

“We do not believe the proposed total digital advertising ban on a very broad range of foods will have any impact on consumer health. The government’s own assessment predicts an impact of less than three calories a day. Even this very small impact is based on a large range of assumptions, including ignoring the fact there are rules in place which prevent advertising HFSS foods in children’s media. Adverts for these foods already cannot be placed in children’s media, cannot be targeted to under 16s and cannot be designed to appeal to children,” Kate Halliwell, FDF’s Head of UK Diet and Health Policy comments.

Moves to tackle childhood obesity
The proposed ban is a result of an amplified connection between COVID-19 and obesity and elicited both positive and negative reactions from industry bodies.

“Companies have told us time and time again that they need a clear line to work toward – the missing piece up until now has been a clear government strategy. If companies want to advertise their food and drink products online, they need to be healthy,” Fran Bernhardt, children’s food campaign coordinator for Sustain, previously told our sister website NutritionInsight.

The announcements came off the back of earlier measures announced in July, in which the government pledged to introduce a 9 pm watershed on all HFSS ads.

The proposal is still under review and could introduce some of the strictest digital marketing restrictions in the world by the end of 2022. 

F&B companies would not be able to promote HFSS foods in Facebook ads, paid search results on Google, text promotions and posts on platforms such as Twitter and Instagram.

FDF address the issue head-on
The FDF letter has been signed by 800 food and drink manufacturers and 3,000 UK brands. 

The organization says that food companies have not been given enough time to submit detailed objections.

“We are writing as the leading food and drink brands in the UK, along with the representative organizations the FDF, UK Hospitality, ISBA and the Advertising Association. The food and drink industry is the largest manufacturing sector in the UK, worth more than £28 billion (US$37 billion) to the economy, employing almost 500,000 people,” the letter reads.

The F&B industry also sustains a hospitality industry which in 2019 employed 3.2 million people and generated £133 billion (US$150 billion) in turnover.

The FDF is also working to minimize the disruption due to the end of the EU transition period and the introduction of new trading provisions from the Northern Ireland protocol. 

“Both of these by themselves are very significant undertakings and are both made more perilous by the current operational and financial impacts of the pandemic,” the FDF spokesperson says.

“The sheer volume of critical work facing food companies in the next few weeks means that at this time, we simply cannot give this consultation the resource it deserves and demands.”

Evidence “lacks detail and efficacy”
The letter calls the timing of this consultation “frankly astonishing,” especially as the government’s stated ambition is to introduce these proposed advertising restrictions at the end of 2022. 

There is no reason to introduce this consultation and demand submission responses with such haste while effectively limiting the opportunity to respond, especially before the end of December, the companies assert.

“The UK government is quite correctly committed to evidence-based policymaking. However, the evidence base underpinning these proposals is lacking in both detail and efficacy,” the FDF says.

Additionally, the companies support that there is still no agreed definition of which foods the government is including in these proposals. 

The food and drink industry agrees that HFSS products should not be targeted at children. Advertisers use sophisticated online tools, which they have demonstrated to the government repeatedly, to aim their advertisements at adult audiences. 

“Furthermore, these restrictions disproportionately impact SMEs, who make up 96 percent of our industry,” the letter explains.

The companies have also requested a meeting with the Prime Minister and the health policy team. This is to discuss alternative approaches that could be considered, which would achieve the government’s aim of reducing child exposure to advertising without imposing complete online bans.