No, the government isn’t imposing restrictions on essential grocery items

We’ve spotted several videos being shared on social media falsely claiming that the UK government is restricting essential grocery items to just two per person from 5 August 2025.

But a government spokesperson told us “this is completely false”.

One video shared over 1,600 times on Facebook claims the UK government is preparing to “quietly roll out” the restrictions on essential grocery items “like rice, pasta, flour and baby milk”, and that products like this will be limited to “no more than two units of the same item per family” (despite the video earlier claiming the restrictions would be “per person”).

Other similar versions of the video are circulating on TikTok and YouTube. Although some people commenting appear to realise it’s false, many appear to be taking the claim at face value.

The videos claim the government is “citing supply chain stability” as the reason for the limits, adding that “according to leaked internal documents supermarkets across London Manchester and Birmingham have already been told to prepare for rollout in phases”.

The video goes on to say there will be random ID checks and AI-powered alerts at checkouts to ensure compliance. It also claims retail workers have been protesting because they are not trained to enforce such rules.

But a spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs told us these claims weren’t true, and said: “We have a high degree of food security” which is “built on supply from diverse sources including strong domestic production and imports through stable trade routes”.

Spokespeople from both Asda and Tesco supermarkets also confirmed to Full Fact that no such plans are in place.

Some supermarkets did introduce restrictions on certain items during the coronavirus pandemic, and shopping was limited at some points to purchasing basic necessities.

Some stores may also limit the purchase of certain limited products to one per customer or higher limits on other items to prevent reselling.

We’ve seen a number of false posts online in recent weeks claiming that the UK government is introducing measures such as automatically reporting purchases over £1,000 to HMRC or introducing a new system called “enhanced customs monitoring” to “track UK residents who leave the country more than three times within a 12 month period” to check they are living within their means.

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