Global shift in food marketing regulations: Norway leads, UK falters amid industry pressure

Daily Maverick

19-06-2025

The World Health Organization will begin, in July 2025, to develop guidelines on the consumption of ultra-processed foods, because a growing body of evidence suggests that a diet rich in highly processed foods — commonly referred to as 'ultra-processed foods' — is associated with increased risk for a number of diet-related non-communicable diseases and other negative health outcomes.
While Norway swiftly puts into place new regulations to ban the marketing of unhealthy food to children, the UK has backpedalled on its own promise to do the same, yielding, critics say, to industry lobbying to delay the new regulations.
The two countries are among about 60 nations that have adopted policies to restrict or ban the marketing of unhealthy foods to children, but only one-third of those (20) have mandatory, government-enforced regulations, with legal penalties for infringement (South Africa is not among them) as opposed to zero penalties, in countries with so-called 'voluntary industry pledges' (South Africa is one of these) to restrict their marketing to children.
Norway's regulations, based on a 'nutrient profile model' developed in 2023, were finalised and proposed in August 2024, and implemented in April 2025 — the same time frame in which South Africa's draft regulations on front-of-pack labelling and marketing, called R3337, have been dormant, since the deadline for public comments closed in July 2023.
The Norway law, like the UK's, also covers several categories of mostly high in fat, sugar and salt foods, as well as energy drinks, and milk- and plant-based drinks. They specify an outright ban on marketing activities towards children (people under 18) for those products, spelling out that 'marketing' is defined as 'any form of communication or action' if the aim is to promote sales to consumers (children or adults buying for children). This includes all forms of competition with an age limit lower than 18, distribution of product samples to children, any form of presentation or design that may appeal to children, and the use of gifts, vouchers, discounts or games that appeal to children. These features do appear in South Africa's draft legislation.
In 2013, Norway did establish a self-regulatory scheme managed by the food industry, much like the one that exists under the auspices of the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa, but, reports the Food Times, evaluations revealed 'significant limitations in this self-regulatory approach'. Scientific evaluations in South Africa have come to the same conclusion: industry self-regulation does not work, especially in under-regulated markets like South Africa's where laws do not prevent or punish the aggressive marketing of unhealthy foods. Recent studies by researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand highlight that 'ceding regulation to industry is risky; government regulations and legislation are needed'.
Industry self-regulation
Though Norway's regulations are based on the 2013 guidelines for industry self-regulation on marketing to children, the Directorate of Public Health will now monitor companies' actions and impose sanctions (fines of up to 4% of the business' annual sales) for violation of the new laws.
The foods included by both Norway and the UK's marketing restrictions cover foods and drinks high in unhealthy fats, salt and added sugars (HFSS), mostly in the categories of highly processed or ultra-processed foods, which are known to contribute to the rapidly increasing rates of overweight, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular and other non-communicable diseases worldwide.
The UK's proposed regulations, announced in December 2024 and set to be implemented in October 2025 — but now deferred until 2026 — are not an outright ban, but specify that the restrictions 'will only affect advertising for less healthy food or drinks on television between 5.30am and 9pm, and paid-for advertising online at any time'. Billboards and outdoor advertising are not included in this restriction.
It is estimated that 6.4% of UK childhood obesity and 5% of overweight is attributable to TV advertising of foods that are high in fat, salt and sugar, according to nutritionist Ali Morpeth in a LinkedIn post referencing the study used by the UK government in its assessment of the impact of television advertising. (Similar data is not available for South Africa.)
In 2023, the World Health Organization recommended that all countries develop stronger policies to protect children from the harmful impact of food marketing. The updated guidelines are based on evidence including how exposure to and the power of food marketing affects children's health, eating behaviours, and food-related attitudes and beliefs. (The WHO will begin, in July 2025, to develop guidelines on the consumption of ultra-processed foods, because 'a growing body of evidence suggests that a diet rich in highly processed foods — commonly referred to as 'ultra-processed foods' — is associated with increased risk for a number of diet-related non-communicable diseases and other negative health outcomes'.)
Regulations deferred and softened
The UK regulations are not only deferred, but are softened: they will still allow 'healthier versions of products' in the 13 categories of foods and drinks that 'are of most significance for childhood obesity', such as breakfast cereals, soft drinks with added sugars, sweetened yogurts, and chocolates and sweets. These products must then fit a second criterion — whether they are 'less healthy' — according to a scoring tool that considers products' nutrient levels. This enables big brands to continue to market their brands, without focusing on the unhealthier, original versions of their products.
In late May, the chief executive of the Royal Society for Public Health, William Roberts, told The Guardian that the delay was a 'huge setback' for public health. 'We can't afford to put off children's health or allow for the measures in the original proposals to be watered down,' he said. One week earlier, The Guardian also revealed that in 2023, the government changed its guidance to retailers on promoting healthy eating after a lobbying campaign by ultra-processed food manufacturers.
Experts agree that Norway's legislation is pioneering in global health. The World Health Organization's Director of Nutrition and Food Safety, Luz Maria De-Regil, said of Norway's new law: 'This regulation ensures that young minds are protected from harmful advertising pressures, making it easier for families to foster healthier eating habits. By setting this precedent Norway is leading the way in safeguarding future generations from preventable health risks.'
De-Regil also said that in the past two years, more than 12 countries had prioritised establishing regulations to prevent harmful marketing of foods to children, with support from the WHO and the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef).
'This growing global commitment to developing mandatory policies and regulations to address the commercial determinants of unhealthy diets (industry-led tactics) is a game changer,' she wrote in a post on LinkedIn.
Other countries that have mandatory, legally enforced regulations include Canada (a total ban on advertising to children under 13 since 1980), Chile, France, Ireland, Mexico, Taiwan, South Korea, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Hungary, Finland, Sweden, Malta, Romania, Australia and Iran.
Countries with non-legally binding ('voluntary') restrictions on the marketing of unhealthy food to children include Italy, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, and the US.
Some others, including many low- and middle-income countries, are in the process of planning mandatory regulations, such as Morocco, Pakistan, Tunisia, Egypt, Peru, Uruguay, Ecuador, Brazil, Costa Rica — and South Africa.
The marketing of unhealthy foods is a category of regulation with 'probably the least traction globally', said Annalies Winny in a Johns Hopkins School of Public Health article in 2022, because marketing is such a crucial and effective tool for industry, with major food companies spending billions of dollars per year to influence children (and their parents) to buy their highly profitable, unhealthy products.
SA dragging its feet on restricting marketing to children
South Africa's attempts to establish statutory restrictions on food marketing appear to have stalled after a hopeful start in 2023, when draft regulations (included in the long-awaited front-of-pack labelling regulations) were published for public comment. The comment period closed in July 2023, yet South Africa has seen zero progress since then — and had no public communication about why the legislation has been delayed — in the same time it has taken Norway to develop, legislate, and implement its new laws.
Daily Maverick asked Professor Susan Goldstein, Director of the SAMRC/Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science (Priceless SA) at Wits University to explain possible reasons for the UK's delay in implementing the ban on marketing unhealthy foods to children.
'Delay, deny, deflect and dilute'
'In many cases the industry argues that the new policies or laws will cause job losses and impact the economy,' Goldstein said, describing how the industry 'playbook' uses delay, deny, deflect and dilute tactics to undermine the regulatory process. Goldstein explained: ' Delay by all means possible means requesting additional research, flooding the commenting process so that it takes the government a long time to process all the comments, and arguing for extra time to get the industry ready.''The second tactic,' Goldstein said, 'is deny — the industry argues that there is no evidence that the proposed policy will have an impact (despite numerous peer-reviewed papers to the contrary). The third is deflect — put the blame for the outcome (that is, obesity and poor health) on the individual, focusing on lifestyle and choices, and, finally dilute — which means weakening the proposed legislation, promoting 'voluntary' codes that have been shown to be ineffective, and push for exemptions and loopholes.'
Goldstein said that this had happened in South Africa in many cases — one example was the 2016 Liquor Amendment Act, when the industry called for two economic evaluations of the act, and another relates to R3337, the front-of-package labelling draft legislation in which marketing restrictions are also proposed. Both tactics resulted in 'flooding the Department of Health with comments so that the understaffed unit, having to examine each comment, is overwhelmed and it takes very long', Goldstein said. 'The industry constantly brings up what they say are job losses due to the Health Promotion Levy (the tax on sugar-sweetened drinks), but our recent research shows that this is not true.'
Petronell Kruger, Programmes Manager at the Healthy Living Alliance, expressed a similar view: 'We hoped to see draft regulation R3337 adopted earlier in the year,' Kruger told Daily Maverick. 'While the timeline for finalising this critical piece of consumer protection regulation might be justified due to the volume of public submissions, the department is not going to be able to use that as an excuse for much longer before we need to start asking, as the public, what is the real reason for the delay?
'And I think we have reached the stage where the public will ask. Too many children are dying from food-related incidents, the diabetes rate at one in nine people has skyrocketed, and more than half of South Africans are now dying from non-communicable diseases, which are closely tied with diets.' DM