Wales bans BOGOF deals and checkout placement of unhealthy food under new regulations
From today, large retailers in Wales cannot put chocolate, crisps or sugary drinks at their checkouts, entrances or aisle ends, and multibuy deals on unhealthy food are banned.
The Food (Promotion and Presentation) (Wales) Regulations 2025 apply to businesses with 50 or more employees and came into force on 26 March 2026.
The rules cover 13 product categories: soft drinks with added sugar, crisps and savoury snacks, breakfast cereals, chocolate and confectionery, ice cream, cakes, sweet biscuits and cereal bars, pastries and morning goods, desserts and puddings, sweetened yoghurt, pizza, potato products including chips and hash browns, and ready meals and breaded or battered products.
In stores larger than 185.8 square metres, those products cannot be placed at entrances, aisle ends or checkouts.
The same restrictions apply to the equivalent prominent positions on retail websites.
Volume price promotions, such as multibuy offers, on products in scope are also banned.
Free refills of sugary drinks are restricted under separate provisions within the same regulations.
The free refill restriction applies to non-prepacked drinks, including open cup soft drinks and pre-sweetened hot drinks such as hot chocolate, tea and coffee sweetened before sale, that are classed as less healthy under the nutrient profiling model used to assess which products are in scope.
Unlike the location and promotion rules, which apply only to retailers, the free refill restrictions also cover restaurants, cafes, takeaways and fast food businesses.
Care homes and educational institutions are not in scope.
Consumer-operated drinks machines inside qualifying businesses can also fall within the restriction, for example a self-serve sweetened coffee machine at a petrol station forecourt.
Drinks out of scope include those with an alcohol content above 1.2%, drinks that do not meet the less healthy threshold, and plain water and drinks with no added sugar.
Welsh Government figures show 60% of adults in Wales are overweight or obese, and nearly a quarter of children are overweight or obese by the time they start school.
Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care Jeremy Miles said: “As of today, it will be easier to make healthier choices on the go and during our weekly shops.”
“We know that parents want the best for their children and to help them form healthy habits and give them a fair start in life.”
“By ensuring that foods high in fat, sugar and salt are no longer given prominence over healthier choices, we are taking important steps to support everyone make healthier choices and to improve public health.”
Dr Ilona Johnson, Interim Co-Director of Health Improvement at Public Health Wales, said: “This is a step in the right direction.”
“Foods high in fat, sugar and salt are often placed prominently in stores and promoted in ways that encourage impulse purchases and higher consumption.”
“There is good evidence showing that policies targeting the food environment are effective at helping people make healthier choices.”
Seasonal branding does not exempt a product from the rules.
Easter eggs, Christmas selection boxes, hampers and gift sets that contain a product classed as less healthy are treated as less healthy products in their entirety.
Some items that appear to be out of scope become in scope when they form part of a ready meal, so sausages sold alone are not covered, but a sausage and mash ready meal is.
Food marked as food to go is in scope if it is sold in a qualifying business.
The regulations were approved by the Senedd on 25 March 2025 and largely mirror equivalent measures already in place in England, though there are some differences.
In Wales, aisle end restrictions apply regardless of whether the aisle is on the main customer route through a store, which goes further than the equivalent English rules.
There is no transition period in Wales for on-pack volume price promotions, meaning retailers must ensure products carrying such promotions are not sold as part of that promotion from today.
Businesses that fail to comply may be issued with an improvement notice, and face a criminal fine or fixed monetary penalty if they do not then achieve compliance.
The Welsh Government published guidance for businesses and local authorities in the 12 months since the regulations were approved.
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