The less healthy food and drink advertising restrictions are UK rules that, since 5 January 2026, ban paid online advertising for identifiable food and drink products classed as less healthy, and stop TV ads for them between 5.30am and 9pm. They are widely called the HFSS or “junk food” ad ban, HFSS meaning high in fat, salt or sugar.
How the restrictions work
The restrictions come from the Health and Care Act 2022, which amended the Communications Act 2003, with the detail set by regulations made in 2024 and 2025. For online ads, the Advertising Standards Authority enforces them through new rules in the CAP Code, with Ofcom as the backstop regulator.
A product is caught when two things are true. It falls within one of the listed categories, which include sugary soft drinks, crisps and savoury snacks, chocolate and sweets, cakes, biscuits, pastries, ice cream, breakfast cereals, pizza and ready meals. And it scores as less healthy under the government’s nutrient profiling model, which weighs sugar, saturated fat, salt and energy against fibre, protein and fruit and vegetable content. A product in a listed category that passes the model can still be advertised.
Online, the rules cover paid-for space: search ads, paid social, display, sponsored posts and paid creator content that shows or identifies a less healthy product. Responsibility sits with the business that pays for the placement.
The main exemptions, at the time of writing (October 2026), are:
- Smaller businesses. Food and drink businesses with fewer than 250 employees are exempt. In a franchise, staff are counted across the franchisor and all franchisees, so many franchise brands do not qualify.
- Brand advertising. Under a 2025 regulation, ads that promote a brand are outside the rules as long as no identifiable less healthy product appears in them.
- Owned media. Your own website and unpaid posts on your own social accounts are not paid-for advertising.
Check the ASA’s current guidance before each campaign, as its 2026 rulings are still settling how the rules apply in practice.
Why it matters
For a bakery chain, dessert brand, pizza business or snack company above the size threshold, much of the usual digital toolkit is no longer available for its best-known products. A Facebook ad showing a slice of cake, a Google Shopping ad for crisps or a paid TikTok video featuring a milkshake can all breach the rules.
Smaller independents are mostly exempt but not free of risk. A London café group that grows past 250 staff, or a small brand that joins a franchise network, can move into scope without anyone in marketing noticing. For restaurants and cafés advertising on Facebook and Instagram, the headcount test is the first thing to check.
Common mistakes
- Assuming the rules only affect TV. The online restriction covers all paid-for space, at any time of day.
- Paying a creator to feature a less healthy product and treating it as organic influencer marketing.
- Relying on the small business exemption without counting staff across the whole franchise.
- Letting a less healthy product appear in the background of a “brand” ad, so it is still identifiable.
- Assuming a product is fine because it sits in a “better for you” range, without running it through the nutrient profiling model.
- Leaving shopping feeds or catalogue ads promoting every product, including the restricted ones.
How to act on it
Map your range first. For every product you might advertise, record its category and its nutrient profiling result, so you know which products can appear in paid ads. Then confirm your headcount on the basis the rules use.
If you are in scope, move paid budget to compliant products, to brand ads that do not identify a less healthy item, and to owned channels such as your website, email list and organic social. Exclude restricted products from the feeds and catalogues used for paid ads, and brief agencies and creators in writing.
When I run Facebook and Instagram ads management for food and drink businesses, the product map is checked before any creative goes into Ads Manager.