Advertise Food Products on Amazon: Navigating the New HFSS Policy

With new HFSS (High Fat, Salt and Sugar) UK regulations having come into effect on 1st October, impacts were seen immediately on Amazon UK, with a significant number of advertising campaigns archived as a result, due to Amazon applying restrictions at total category level. Today, businesses and brands across Amazon remain heavily impacted by this new legislation.

In this article, we get into all things HFSS, what it is, how to get your impacted ads back on track, and how to pass for an exemption.

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What is the new High in Fat, Salt, or Sugar (HFSS) policy?

Introduced by the UK government, the new HFSS policy holds businesses accountable to a greater extent when it comes to informing their consumers of nutritional content and making unhealthy ingredients known. The regulations restrict the placement of HFSS products online, meaning they cannot be promoted on the homepage of websites or key Amazon pages, appear under searches for non-HFSS items, and are no longer suggested as recommended basket additions. The categories listed below have been deemed as particularly harmful to health and, as such, have been subjected to certain restrictions:

• Soft drinks that are high in sugar (excluding alcohol & medicinal drinks)
• Chocolate and sweets
• Ice cream, cakes, desserts, and puddings
• Breakfast cereals & biscuits
• Sweetened yoghurts
• Potato products
• Ready meals and breaded products

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For more information on new HFSS rules and regulations, please click here. Restricting promotions of products high in fat, sugar or salt by location and by volume price: implementation guidance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

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How can I resume/reinstate my advertising on Amazon?

Provide all mandatory information related to HFSS for all existing and new products affected. As seen in the image below, you will be required to mark each product as either “Healthy”, “Less Healthy”, or “Not in scope”.

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(Note: ASINs incorrectly marked as ‘Not in scope’ that fall into an HFSS category will be assumed to be ‘Less healthy’ and will be restricted by the regulations.)

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Although optional, it is recommended that you include the following pieces of information on your Amazon product listing pages:

• Score A
• Score C
• Energy Content (Kcal)
• Sugars
• Dietary fibre
• Protein
• Sodium
• Fruit, vegetables and nuts (%)
• HFSS status

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To do so, manually edit your listings on MYI by the following: ‘Edit listing’ > ‘Compliance tab’ > ‘HFSS Status”.

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You can also upload a flat file if you are trying to update multiple listings using a ‘Partial update’.

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Once you have successfully uploaded the above pieces of information, you can go ahead and open a case with Amazon Advertising Support and request an exemption.

In Seller Central, click the following: Advertising > Campaign Manager > Click the question mark on the top right of the screen > Click ‘Support Centre’

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Here, you will need to provide the following details on your case:

• Campaign name
• Affected ASINs
• Exemption Reason

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What are the eligibilities for an exemption?

• Micro or small businesses (businesses with under 50 employees)
• Sellers who don’t have HFSS products in ads
• Business to Business (B2B)

We can request for a small business badge from Amazon - this will help us with the approval for the HFSS exemption since micro and small business owners are usually granted an exemption.

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How to get a small business badge - Amazon

You can open a case directly with the Amazon support team for the small business badge to be added to your account. You will need to provide the following details:

• Business Brand
• Company Name
• Company Registration Number
• Business Address
• Merchant Token

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‍Success Story: Kingsbridge Chocolate

One of our very own clients, Kingsbridge Chocolate, sells a wide range of chocolates and sweetened goods in the UK. The suspension of Amazon advertising occurred when the HFSS regulation was put into place. After working to rectify the issue, we found that the simplest solution was to give Amazon all the information they requested regarding the HFSS.

After a lot of back and forth with Amazon’s team, we began to see that our client's products were once more being accepted for advertising.

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Whether working around the new HFSS policy still seems near impossible, or you would like to solve any HFSS-related issues quickly, please feel free to get in touch for any help you may need.

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