Retail Trade: Food

(asked on 10th February 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the size of a business for the purpose of new High Fat, Sugar and Salt guidelines refers to number of employees in that business in (a) England, (b) the UK or (c) globally.


Answered by
Maggie Throup Portrait
Maggie Throup
This question was answered on 21st February 2022

The Food (Promotion and Placement) (England) Regulations 2021 apply to medium or large businesses (those with 50 or more employees) operating in and selling to England. The number of employees is not restricted to England, it is the total number of employees a business has in its entirety.

Specialist retailers are retailers that only or mainly sell food from a single category in Schedule 1 of the Regulations or a specific type of “less healthy” product. For example, chocolatiers, confectioners, and cake stores are generally considered to be specialist retailers and are therefore exempt from the location restrictions. However, they must comply with volume price promotion restrictions.

Concessions are defined in the Regulations as being an area that is occupied by a business other than the business primarily responsible for managing and operating the store, but only where this concession operates its own payment facilities.

There is a transition period until 2023 which allows retailers to sell existing stock that was produced before October 2022 with volume price promotions (such as ‘X% extra’) on the packaging that they cannot remove. After October 2023, it is not permitted.

The Regulations will be enforced by food authorities – this will be a local authority (for example a county, borough, or district council). The Regulations may be enforced by trading standards and/or environmental health officers depending on local arrangements.

The upcoming guidance, being developed in collaboration with trade associations, businesses and local authorities, will provide further clarification on which products and product formats are in scope of the Regulations to help businesses to plan ahead.

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