The IPA has today responded to the launch of the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) consultation and impact assessment on applying the Nutrient Profiling Model 2018 to the new less healthy food and drink advertising restrictions and to the separate promotion and placement restrictions, which opened today (25 March 2026).
The restrictions are currently underpinned by the NPM 2004/5 Model, which will remain in place until the outcome of the consultation has been reached.
Says Richard Lindsay, Director of Legal & Public Affairs, IPA:
“Agencies spent a lot of time and resources working with clients to get to grips with the new LHF restrictions, only for the Government to now consider moving the goal posts. What is bound to anger businesses is the Government's acknowledgement that many of them have already invested in reformulating their products to comply with the current NPM, but the Government now wants to incentivise them to continue innovating and reformulating further to meet these new standards.
"That is hardly a recipe for business growth and is likely to have the opposite effect of that intended. Once bitten, twice shy. The prospect of a new nutrient profiling model is deeply frustrating, creating further disruption, added costs and yet more uncertainty for businesses that have been operating in line with the new rules.
View the Government Consultation
Last updated 25 March 2026