Restricting promotions of food and drink high in fat, sugar or salt: consultation analysis

Introduction

Background

The Scottish Government is committed to a wide range of actions to improve public health and help create a food environment which supports healthier choices. This includes a commitment to restrict promotions of food and drink high in fat, sugar or salt (HFSS) at the point of purchase, both in store and online.

The primary aim of the policy is to reduce the public health harms associated with excess consumption of calories, fat, sugar and salt, including the risks of developing type 2 diabetes, various types of cancer and other conditions such as cardiovascular disease. The policy is also expected to contribute to reducing diet-related health inequalities, including those in relation to socioeconomic disadvantage, and support a policy aim to halve childhood obesity by 2030.

To inform the development of regulations, earlier this year, the Scottish Government consulted on the detail of proposed regulations to restrict promotion of HFSS foods where they are sold to the public, including across retail and out-of-home settings. This fulfils a statutory requirement to consult on changes to food law. Feedback to the consultation will also inform further development of the policy and associated impact assessments.

The consultation was published on Citizen Space on 27 February 2024 and closed on 21 May 2024. This report presents an analysis of the responses to this consultation.

Analysis

Consultations are open to anyone who wishes to take part. The information collected reflects the views of those respondents but cannot be considered as representative of the wider population.

The consultation responses from Citizen Space were downloaded into an Excel database. Any remaining email responses were added into the database manually.

Initially, the raw data file was cleaned. This involved matching emailed responses to specific questions in the consultation where possible, and removing duplicate responses where the responses and/or contact details were identical. No additional imputation of closed questions, based on open-ended comments, took place.

The cleaned database was then downloaded into Progressive’s SNAP analysis software package to analyse the closed questions and create data tables. The Excel data file was used for analysis of the open questions.

A coding framework was developed based on key topics within the consultation document and from a review of a cross-section of responses for each question. Subsequently, text in open responses was coded based on this framework. Where responses were lengthy or complex, these were reviewed individually.

To enable further analysis, organisational respondents were categorised into seven groups, see Table 2 below.

The report ensures that the full range of views are reported, not just the majority views. To give an indication of the weight/prevalence of views expressed, the report uses the following:

• All: 100%
• Most: more than c.60%
• Many: c.30% - c.60%
• Some: c.10% - c.30%
• A few: less than c.10%

The consultation

The consultation sought views on the detail of proposed regulations to restrict HFSS promotions including:

• targeted foods within the scope of restrictions
• price promotions within the scope of restrictions, including meal deals and temporary price reductions
• the approach to placement restrictions of targeted foods in store and online
• the qualifying businesses within the scope of restrictions, including proposed exemptions
• the proposed approach to enforcement and implementation.

The consultation comprised 29 short quantitative response questions (typically (yes/no/don’t know); with almost all of these (22) followed by an opportunity to provide a qualitative explanation of their response, and a further 8 open response questions.