Government’s obesity plan ‘must consider impact on small stores’

By David Shrimpton in Industry News 27th July 2020

Convenience retailers have urged the government to take into account the impact on local shops of its new obesity strategy unveiled earlier today.

The government said it would ban ‘buy one get one free’ promotions and restrict the siting of high fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) products as part of its national strategy for tackling obesity.

Measures in the strategy which would impact local shops include:

Legislation to end promotions of HFSS products by volume and prominent location
A consultation on calorie labelling in out-of-home locations for businesses with more than 250 employees – the status of franchise businesses will be reviewed in the consultation
A consultation on introducing calorie labelling for pre-packaged alcoholic drinks
A consultation on enhancing traffic light nutritional labelling on food packaging
A ban on advertising HFSS on TV and online before 9pm before the end of 2022

James Lowman, chief executive at the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS), said: “Government policy and resource needs to be focused on expanding choice and healthy food availability, not on regulations that would make life harder for shops that are maintaining access to food for their communities.

“Restrictions on where products can be sited would not be workable for small stores.

“Convenience stores are small, so the introduction of restrictions on where products can be sited would present retailers with significant practical and operational challenges.”