Today (3 December), the Government is being called on to take a stronger stance as evidence of corporate lobbying and delayed policies demonstrates a lack of effective action.
The Food Foundation’s annual State of the Nation’s Food Industry report, funded by Impact on Urban Health, reveals that many food industry giants are finding loopholes in regulations intended to protect young people from junk food.
In January 2026 a ban on adverts for food and drink high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) on TV before 9pm and online will be introduced. However, this new report shows that since this ban was announced food industry giants have simply shifted to other forms of advertising, undermining efforts to protect young people from their influence.
Outdoor advertising
Outdoor advertising - including billboards, buses, bus shelters, train station advertising, shopping outlets and taxis - is exempt from the ban, and the report finds food companies have increased spend on outdoor advertising by 28% between 2021 and 2024 in the years following the Government’s 2020 announcement of the forthcoming ban.
McDonald’s is by far the largest spender, splashing £86m in 2024. However, Unilever, Pepsico, Coca-Cola, Mars and Mondelez also feature in the list of top 20 biggest spenders on outdoor advertising.
This remains a big issue for children as, excluding digital advertising, outdoor ads provide the second largest source of their exposure to food promotions, after TV.
Video game and livestreaming platforms
The report also warns that young people are being targeted through videogame livestreaming platforms as ‘cues,’ where food marketing is subtle and hard to regulate.
Food and drink advertising was found to be widespread, with 94% of analysed footage containing a cue. Most cues (71%) promoted HFSS products, dominated by energy drinks, soft drinks and fast-food brands.
Four in ten cues (39%) featured brands rather than specific products, putting them outside forthcoming regulations. Almost all cues (98%) lacked any disclosure of paid promotion, making advertising rules on gaming platforms extremely hard to enforce.
Lobbying
The report shows corporate lobbying is widespread. Between July 2024 and June 2025, food industry meetings with ministers outnumbered NGO meetings ten to one, with little transparency about what was discussed. Such power imbalances can stall public-health regulation; the new restrictions on unhealthy food advertising, for instance, took five years to pass and now contain major loopholes.
The Food Foundation has urged the Government to strengthen these regulations, introduce a comprehensive Food Bill promoting healthy, sustainable diets, and quickly implement mandatory reporting of healthy food sales for all large food businesses to ensure transparency and support a level playing field.
Rebecca Tobi (left), head of food business transformation at The Food Foundation, said: ‘We cannot continue to leave progress on healthy and sustainable sales to the market.
“It’s simply not working. Fixing the system so that it better serves both people and planet needs bold and urgent action from businesses but also, crucially, the government, who are ultimately responsible for setting the parameters businesses operate in.
“For too long there has been no long-term vision for the UK’s food system with a striking lack of commercial incentives for businesses to produce and sell us good food.”
“For too long there has been no long-term vision for the UK’s food system with a striking lack of commercial incentives for businesses to produce and sell us good food. We hope the Government will introduce a new Food Bill to set out a clear direction of travel for the future of the UK’s food system and ensure better health and a liveable planet for the next generation lies at the heart of this.”
Baroness Walmsley, Chair of the 2024 House of Lords Food Diet & Obesity Committee, added: “This report shows that businesses continue to relentlessly push low nutrient foods which are loaded with calories, despite the negative impact on the health of the nation.
“This is particularly concerning where we see children and young people being targeted. A Good Food Bill is needed to set the direction for policy going forward so we can shift the food system in the long term and ensure it does a much better job at supporting us all to eat well.”
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