HFSS - Full Guide

5. ENFORCEMENT Where an enforcement officer has reasonable grounds for believing that a business is failing to comply with the regulations, they may issue an improvement notice stating: • The officer’s grounds for believing that the business is failing to comply with the regulations. • The measures which, in the officer’s opinion, the business must take action in order to secure compliance. • The requirement to take the relevant corrective measures within a given time period. Any business failing to comply with an improvement notice is guilty of an offence and the enforcement authority will have the option to issue a fixed monetary penalty as an alternative to prosecution. This would be a fine of £2,500. Local authorities must publish guidance on how they intend to use fixed penalty notices. 4. HFSS PRODUCTS acs.org.uk 14 Convenience retailers, not suppliers, are liable if HFSS products are not correctly promoted or displayed in their stores. Failure to correctly identify products as HFSS could result in enforcement action. Convenience retailers must demonstrate they have undertaken sufficient due diligence 3 to identify HFSS products. There are two practical ways that convenience retailers can demonstrate due diligence and you can choose one or a combination of these approaches: 2 Source: Food Safety Act 1990 – Section 20 and 21 1. C onsult with your suppliers to determine which of their products are HFSS Suppliers are required to provide accurate information about the nutritional profile of their products so are best placed to advise what products in their range are HFSS products. If a supplier does not indicate which of their products are HFSS you should contact them and clarify before displaying or promoting their products. Record the interaction or the advice you receive from the supplier, for example retaining emails or information from websites. 2. C onsult with third party providers of information on the HFSS product There are a wide range of commercial providers of databases about the nutritional profile of food products, for example Nielsen Brandbank or GS1. Check all new products you stock in your store against these databases and regularly check for updates to database for products that already stocked in store(s). Retain information used to inform your decision about the promotion and location of products in store(s). Calculating the nutritional profiling score of products yourself You can try to calculate the nutritional profiling score of products yourself. This is a complex process. Technical guidance is available here: https://tinyurl.com/v5t8t4kn Prepacked foods The regulations do not impact “Pre-packed food for direct sale” (PPDS) which is food that is packaged at the same place it is offered or sold to consumers and is in this packaging before it is ordered or selected by the consumer; or food that is sold loose or non-prepacked. HFSS categories and nutritional profiling score 15 The regulations do not relate to particular brands or to whole categories, each prepacked product must be assessed to see if it fits within one of the 15 categories listed below AND has a nutritional profiling score of above 4. The full definition of each category is contained in the Department for Health and Social Care guidance. HFSS categories Soft drinks with added sugar Confectionery Cakes Ice cream Crisps and savoury snacks Morning goods (eg pastries) Puddings and dairy desserts Sweet biscuits Breakfast cereals Ready meals Yoghurts Milk drinks with added sugar Juices with added sugar Pizza Chips and similar potato products HFSS PRODUCTS: PROMOTION AND LOCATION REGULATIONS An ACS advice guide for retailers