The Food Foundation’s annual State of the Nation’s Food Industry report, funded by Impact on Urban Health, reveals that food industry giants are finding loopholes in government regulation intended to protect young people from junk food. 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 report comes just weeks after The Lancet published a series of papers showing the rise of Ultra Processed Foods is damaging public health, fuelling chronic diseases worldwide, and deepening health inequalities.
In January 2026 a ban on adverts for food and drink that are high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) on TV before 9pm and online will be introduced (though the ban was itself delayed due to lobbying). However, the report shows that since this ban was announced food industry giants have simply shifted to other forms of advertising, undermining
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 announcement in July 2020 of a forthcoming ban on TV and online advertising.
McDonald’s is by far the largest spender on outdoor advertising, spending a total of £86 million in 2024, an increase of 71% between 2021 and 2024. Unilever, Pepsico, Coca-Cola, Mars and Mondelez also featured in the list of top 20 biggest spenders on outdoor advertising.
This remains a big issue for children as, excluding digital advertising, outdoor advertising provides the second largest source of their exposure to food advertising (30.3%) after television advertising, and accounts for the largest source of HFSS food advertising (40.0%)..
Advertising through videogame and livestreaming platforms
The report warns that young people are also being targeted through videogame livestreaming platforms, where food marketing is subtle and hard to regulate. Gamers’ product mentions and on-screen appearances of products or brands, known as “food cues,” act as advertising that is influential but difficult to monitor. This is significant given that nearly all UK adolescents (97–100%) have a mobile phone and most (73–79%) use gaming apps or sites.
Food and drink advertising was found to be widespread, with 94% of analysed footage containing a cue. Most cues (71%) promoted unhealthy (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.
Government must take a stand against corporate influence
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 urges 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, head of food business transformation, 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. 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.”
Katharine Jenner, executive director, Obesity Health Alliance, said: “These findings show how quickly companies change their behaviour when regulation is announced – which is exactly what we want when policies are well designed, but a serious problem when there are gaping loopholes. Outdoor advertising exploded after the Government signalled
“Future marketing policies must learn from this. They need to be comprehensive, cover all channels, and close the brand-only loophole that leaves so much advertising out of scope. Anything less gives industry a clear route to continue targeting families and undermining children’s health.”
Baroness Walmsley, chair of the 2024 House of Lords Food Diet and Obesity Committee, said: “We need significantly more intervention from the government if we are to tackle obesity and the multiple other health problems caused by food in this country. 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.”
Food Foundation Young Ambassador and school student, Yusuf 16, London said, “As a young person I see the pressure from every angle. On the streets we are surrounded by junk food advertising that has risen sharply in just a few years. Online almost everything we watch is saturated with energy drinks and unhealthy snacks. It should not be normal for a system to push unhealthy choices on young people. We need leadership that puts health at the centre of the food industry.”
Jomi, young activist, Bite Back, said, “I’m really happy to see this report because it shows the challenges that young people like me are faced with every day. It echoes what we’ve seen in Bite Back’s own research too, which is that most outdoor advertising for food and drink promotes unhealthy products. And it’s really unfair – over a third of schools have at least one junk food advert within a short walk, and children living in underserved communities are being especially targeted by junk food ads. Young people’s health is at risk and we’re sick of it. We want to see a world where junk food ads no longer surround us.”
