Unhealthy diets Other
Conditions
Interventions
This is an evaluation of new restrictions on marketing of food and drinks high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS), comprising bans on:
• adverts for HFSS products on live broadcast TV and UK on-demand serv
• paid-for online adverts of HFSS products by UK operating businesses from Jan 2026
• multibuy (eg 3 for 2) and volume based (eg 50% extra free) price promotions on pre-packaged HFSS products in England from Oct 2025.
Population (purchasing data) – participants sign up to be a membe
Sponsors
University of Cambridge
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
10 Years to 100 Years
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: 1. Population (purchasing data)- adult household respondents who are members of commercial household purchasing panel living in England; age 18 years plus 2. Population (marketing recall and intervention support) - adults (age 18y+) and youth (age 10-17y) who took part in the International Food Policy Survey in 2024, 2025 or 2026 from the UK, Canada, Mexico and the USA. Recruitment is through Nielsen Consumer Insights Global Panel and their partners. 3. Population (awareness, acceptability and experiences) - adults (aged 18y+) and youth (aged 13-18y) living in England. Adult participants will be recruited from the general population through a GDPR-compliant market research agency operating an adult research panel. Participants aged 13-15y will be recruited via parents on the panel. 4. Health professionals (key actors and actions) - those with self-described professional knowledge and experience of UK food marketing regulations who are currently (or until recently were) working in academia, civil society, industry or government.
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: 1. Unable to provide consent. 2. Evidence that completed the survey too quickly or without enough attention (simple factual questions incorrect).
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Prevalence of HFSS price promotions in UK supermarkets measured using commercially collected product data on products sold in 5 UK supermarkets from Sept 24 to Dec 26 and analysed using interrupted time series methods. We have multiple outcomes are none are formally designated as the primary outcome. One is listed here and the remainder under secondary outcome measures. | — |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| 1. Availability and price of HFSS products in UK supermarkets measured using commercially collected product data on products sold in 5 UK supermarkets from Sept 24 to Dec 26; analysed using interrupted time series methods. 2. Prevalence of HFSS TV and online advertising and exposure of UK adults to HFSS TV adverts measured using commercially collected broadcast data and social media content collected using WHO protocols from Sept 24 to Dec 26; analysed using interrupted time series methods. 3. Availability of HFSS products in UK chain restaurants measured using menu and nutritional data scraped from large UK chain restaurant websites from Jan 21 to April 28; analysed using interrupted time series methods. 4. Purchasing of HFSS products by English households measured using commercially collected household purchasing data from Sept 24 to Dec 26; analysed using interrupted time series methods. 5. Prevalence of overweight, obesity and other relevant health outcomes in England, modelled using PRIMEtime multi-state life table model to Dec 2035. 6. Economic performance of relevant food, media and advertising industries measured using monthly domestic turnover, employment, profitability and market share of the largest UK manufacturers and retailers of HFSS products, UK-based advertisers, digital platforms and broadcasters from Sept 24 to Dec 26; analysed using interrupted time series methods. 7. Economic performance of wider UK society, modelled using a Computable General Equilibrium model. 8. Recall of marketing exposure among adults and youth in the UK and elsewhere (Australia, Canada, Mexico and USA) measured using annual online self-reported surveys in November 2024, 2025 and 2026; analysed using difference-in-difference methods. 9. Support for the interventions in adults in the UK and elsewhere (Australia, Canada, Mexico and USA) measured using annual online self-reported surveys in November 2024, 2025 and 2026; analysed using difference-in-difference methods. 10. Awa | — |
Countries
Canada, England, Scotland, United Kingdom
Contacts
Public ContactJean Adams
Outcome results
None listed