Chocolate at the checkout

It’s far too easy to choose unhealthy options in retail stores in the UK. This isn’t just a personal challenge for citizens, it’s a public health crisis. The places we shop shape our food choices and quite frankly, the odds are stacked against us in selecting healthy food.

There is a growing momentum for strong policies to rein in the aggressive promotion of unhealthy foods, and that’s a positive step. In fact, the UK government introduced a ban on placing unhealthy foods at checkouts, aisle-ends and store entrances in 2022. But you wouldn’t necessarily know it as a shopper.

Our research shows there is a significant lack of resources for adequate enforcement. This situation means we still see chocolate at checkouts in some stores and alcohol at the aisle-ends in others because stores are either breaking the rules or using loopholes to continue making money at the expense of the country’s health.

Regulating the food retail environment is an important part of the solution to lower levels of obesity but weak enforcement can undermine health goals.

The Food (Promotion and Placement) Regulations 2021 are designed to limit the promotion of unhealthy foods in most retail stores and online equivalents in England. When 22 local government officers were asked about their approach to enforcement before the regulations came into effect, the clear narrative was that these regulations would not be robustly enforced because of a lack of staff and training.  

Our research showed the key obstacles to enforcing these regulations include:

• Staffing Constraints: There is limited capacity within local authority enforcement teams to enforce these regulations. Their scarce resources are used for immediate threats to life like knife crime rather than assessing breaches, issuing notices and processing fines for these anti-obesity regulations.

  
  

• Inadequate financial support: Funding constraints further hinder enforcement because only £281k in funding has been allocated across the 317 local authorities in England to support these enforcement tasks, leading to inconsistencies across regions.

  
  

• Minimal training: Enforcement officers are likely to rely on personal judgment and experience due to limited training and guidance on how to interpret the definitions in the regulations, leading to significant variations in the interpretation and enforcement of the rules across regions.

Despite the regulations’ long-term health goals, it is clear that they are ranked as a low priority and the process of issuing infringement notices is cumbersome. This situation is leading to patchy enforcement, and businesses not being held accountable uniformly. The processes for reporting breaches are also unclear meaning even action by the public is usually difficult. A freedom of information request covering a three-month period showed that no improvement notices had been issued despite instances of non-compliance being observed.

A Call for Stronger Enforcement

Our research outlines actions at the national and local levels that could help to improve the level of enforcement being undertaken.

National-level actions

• Provide adequate and dedicated funding to local authorities to recruit and allocate staff specifically for compliance assessment of these regulations.
  

• Provide centralised training and detailed guidelines for enforcement officers to ensure consistency and build confidence among enforcement teams.
  

• Streamline compliance assessments by requiring manufacturers to disclose nutrient profile scores for their products and retailers to provide key details, such as store square footage and employee count, to their local authorities.      

Local-level actions

• Instigate linkages within local authorities by supporting cross departmental activity between trading standards, environmental health and public health officers to make enforcement efficient.
  

• Raise regulations’ priority by incorporating into joint strategic needs assessment within local authorities to increase buy-ins from councillors and Directors of Public Health.

Lack of enforcement compromises impact

Investing in enforcement is essential to securing regulation compliance and achieving the level playing field that food businesses and public health advocates called for. Early enforcement ensures that businesses fully understand their obligations, comply with the rules, and help build a precedent for healthier retail environments. Proactive enforcement sends a clear message- the regulations are here to stay, and compliance is non-negotiable. But local authorities cannot achieve strong compliance without adequate funding and the right tools.

A lack of enforcement risks being misinterpreted as a sign of regulatory failure and withdrawal of the regulations. This outcome would be detrimental to the health of British children and families. Here are a few instances recently where our research team have spotted non-compliance but do not know how to effectively report the instances, and even approaching the store manager has not led to an immediate removal of products from restricted areas.  

To truly make an impact, future food policies must incorporate robust enforcement strategies and dedicated funding from the outset to maximise the regulations’ impact and safeguard public health.