The UK advertising regulator has banned a television advertisement from meal-replacement company Huel after concluding it implied the brand’s products could appropriately replace all conventional food.
In its ruling the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said viewers could reasonably assume from the advert that replacing all normal food with Huel would be nutritionally appropriate. The watchdog found that implication to be misleading and therefore in breach of the advertising rules that require claims about health and nutrition to be clear and substantiated.
The decision highlights the ASA’s scrutiny of marketing that touches on diet and health. Advertising standards require that any suggestion a product can meet complete nutritional needs must be supported by robust evidence and presented in a way that does not mislead consumers about the product’s suitability as a total diet replacement.
The ruling is part of broader regulatory attention on claims made by producers of meal-replacement and supplement products. Regulators say consumers rely on advertising when making dietary choices, and so messages that suggest comprehensive nutritional equivalence to conventional food are liable to close examination.
The ASA’s published adjudication did not set out additional sanctions beyond the finding of a breach; typically, banned ads must not be broadcast in their current form. The decision is likely to prompt companies marketing food-substitute products to review how they describe the role of those products in a balanced diet.