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The less healthy food ad rules, nine months in: what the rulings mean for your next shoot

The ban on paid online ads for identifiable less healthy food has been law since 5 January. The ASA's first rulings show where the line sits, and most of it can be handled on the shot list.

By James Jones, founder of Granary Digital · 28 September 2026

Since 5 January 2026 it has been against the law in the UK to run a paid online ad for an identifiable less healthy food or drink product, at any hour. Industry had complied voluntarily from 1 October 2025. The ASA published its first rulings on 15 April, and a second batch had been rounded up by 8 July. Between them they show fairly precisely what "identifiable" means on screen.

If you're planning a food or drink shoot for anything that will be paid for online, this is the part to settle before the day.

What the rules restrict

Ads for identifiable less healthy food and drink are banned on Ofcom-regulated TV and on-demand services between 05:30 and 21:00, and in paid-for online media at any time. IAB UK's list of paid online media covers search listings, paid social, display, paid creator partnerships, sponsored content and retail media.

A product counts as less healthy if it scores 4 or more for food, or 1 or more for drinks, on the government's nutrient profiling model, and it falls into one of 13 categories. Those include sugary soft drinks, savoury snacks, confectionery, cakes, pizza, fried potato products, and ready meals and sandwiches.

Outside the ban:

  • businesses with fewer than 250 staff, where a franchise counts as part of the franchisor's business
  • audio-only ads
  • brand ads, under SI 2025/1011, in force since 31 October 2025, provided they don't depict a specific less healthy product or show realistic unpackaged food that looks like one, and don't use a brand name containing a product name unless it was established before 16 July 2025
  • owned media, meaning your own website and organic social posts, along with B2B advertising and digital out-of-home, which IAB UK lists as out of scope

The advertiser carries the legal responsibility, not the media owner. The ASA says it is using its AI-powered Active Ad Monitoring system to find problem ads.

What the ASA has decided so far

The first rulings, published on 15 April 2026:

  • Lidl (Northern Ireland), a paid influencer post on Instagram featuring bakery items: upheld.
  • Iceland, paid display ads on a news site showing sweets: upheld.
  • On the Beach, a TV ad with a fleeting shot of a doughnut: not upheld.
  • German Doner Kebab, an influencer post: not upheld, because the menu items were not in scope.

The later batch, summarised by Lewis Silkin on 8 July:

  • Mars Wrigley: upheld. M&M's characters personifying specific products were caught.
  • Morley's (Woking): upheld. The franchise network had more than 250 staff, so the small business exemption didn't apply.
  • KFC, Domino's, Papa John's and Uber Eats: not upheld. The products shown were non-HFSS variants.

The test that came out of the first rulings fits on a call sheet. A close-up plus a verbal mention makes a product identifiable. An incidental shot at the edge of frame does not.

Planning the shoot around it

  1. Tag every shot by where it will run. Paid social and search, your own channels, TV after 9pm. The same frame can be fine in one place and banned in another.
  2. Shoot brand-only versions for paid media. Logo, place, people, atmosphere, and no specific in-scope product in shot. Watch the unpackaged food: realistic food that looks like a specific less healthy product loses the brand exemption.
  3. Keep the hero close-ups for owned channels. The cheese pull on the pizza belongs on your website and your organic posts.
  4. If product appears in a paid ad, make it the right variant. The KFC, Domino's, Papa John's and Uber Eats complaints failed because the products shown weren't less healthy. Shoot the versions that fall outside the rules and keep the nutrient-profile evidence for each one.
  5. Keep a log of what appears on screen, shot by shot, with each product's score. If a complaint arrives, that list is the file you'll want.
  6. Treat creators and characters as part of the ad. A paid creator post is paid media, and a brand character personifying a product counts as showing it.

Two versions, one set

A brand-only cut and a product close-up are different set-ups under the same lights, and a controlled stage is the easiest place to get both in one day. Our food studio has overhead camera positions from the grid at 4.5m, tabletop and macro rigs, flash strips, an octobox and a 1m turntable. There is deliberately no fitted kitchen: practical kitchen sets are built per production. The White Space is £295+VAT for a half day and £395+VAT for a full day. Tell us about allergens in advance and we plan around them.

If you'd rather we plan the shot list and shoot it, content days for hospitality and product brands start from £2,950+VAT and are planned against your channels before anyone plates up.

Send us the product list and the channels it's for, and we'll help you split the shot list before the day.

Sources

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The picture at the top of this article is an illustration generated to show the set-up. It is not a photograph of a client or of a real job.

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