The proposals are expected to predominately impact businesses who operate in retail, manufacturing and wholesale and the consultation discusses five key areas.
- targeted foods within the scope of restrictions;
- price promotions within the scope of restrictions, including meal deals and temporary price reductions;
- the approach to placement restrictions of targeted foods in store and online;
- the qualifying businesses within the scope of restrictions, including proposed exemptions;
- the proposed approach to enforcement and implementation
Scotland has significantly high levels of people who are overweight, obese and consume poor diets, which results in negative health outcomes such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes and certain cancers.
The Scottish Government has said that what surrounds us shapes our health and that they wish to introduce measures to transform the food environment. One of the measures proposed is to restrict to the promotion of less healthy food and drink where they are sold to the public.
The Scottish Government consulted on this topic in 2022 allowing them to take account of developments such as EU exit, Covid, Cost of living and the introduction of equivalent restrictions in England. The Scottish Government states that they have continued to engage with public health and business stakeholders which has further informed the development of our proposals on the detail of regulations to restrict promotions on foods high in fat, sugar or salt.
The primary aims of the policy are to:
- Reduce the public health harms associated with the excess consumption of calories (fat, sugar and salt)
- Reduce diet-related health inequalities
- To support their aim to reduce childhood obesity by half by 2030
Next steps:
FSB Scotland will host a roundtable session on Thursday 16th May from 10-11am. This will be an opportunity to find out more about the proposals, what they mean for you and or your business and for you to play an active role in helping formulate our consultation submission.
For more information on the consultation, or to make your own submission, please click here.