Objective: To evaluate the impact of the 2017 update to the voluntary Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) code for advertising food on children and young people’s exposure to unhealthy food advertisements on New Zealand television.Design: Audience ratings data were analysed for New Zealand children and young people’s television viewing for eight random days prior to (June to August 2015) and following (October to December 2018) the code update, from 06.00 to midnight (864 h). Food advertisements were coded using three nutrient profiling models. The number of children and young people watching television each year was compared.Setting: Three free-to-air New Zealand television channels.Participants: New Zealand children aged 5–18 years.Results: Television viewer numbers decreased over the 3 years (P< 0·0001). The mean rate of unhealthy food advertising on weekdays was 10·4 advertisements/h (2015) and 9·5 advertisements/h (2018). Corresponding rates for weekend days were 8·1 and 7·3 advertisements/h, respectively. The percentage of food advertisements which were for unhealthy foods remained high (63·7 % on weekdays and 65·9 % on weekends) in 2018. The ASA definition of children’s ‘peak viewing time’ (when 25 % of the audience are children) did not correspond to any broadcast times across weekdays and weekend days.Conclusions: Between 2015 and 2018, children and young people’s television exposure to unhealthy food advertising decreased. However, almost two-thirds of all food advertisements were still unhealthy, and the updated ASA code excluded the times when the greatest number of children was watching television. Consequently, government regulation and regular monitoring should reflect the evolving food marketing environment.

The National Healthy Food and Drink Policy (NHFDP) was developed to promote healthy food environments for the New Zealand District Health Board (DHB) staff and visitors. The policy classifies food and drinks as red, amber, or green and sets benchmarks for the proportions of red, amber, and green foods that should be available on-site. The HYPE (Healthy Policy Evaluation) study is the first national evaluation of the implementation and impact of the NHFDP. We designed an electronic audit tool to collect detailed food and drink data across a range of food settings (vending machines and all food outlets) at New Zealand DHBs and some government agencies. The electronic audit tool collects all the information required to classify food and drinks under the NHFDP (photographs of foods and drinks, item weight/volume, energy and nutrient content, ingredient composition, and Health Star Rating). The web-based tool was created using Drupal (web content management framework) and pilot tested. The tool is now in use by the HYPE team in DHBs across New Zealand. Data collection commenced in March 2021 and has been completed for nine DHBs (5700 products) so far. Audit results detailing the proportion of red, amber, and green food items available at all participating institutions will be available in late 2022. Ongoing stakeholder feedback and requirements have been incorporated throughout the design process and used to improve the audit tool. This feedback has informed key lessons such as agreeing the tool’s aims and objectives collectively with stakeholders/potential end users, pilot testing the tool prior to use, and ensuring the tool is simple and accessible for all end-users. This new electronic food setting audit tool has successfully facilitated comprehensive and standardised data collection across a range of retail settings.