Companies like Deliveroo and UberEats could face bans on junk food promotions under Government plans to crack down on obesity.
Restricting advertisements for unhealthy meals by online delivery platforms is among a raft of policy proposals which have been discussed by officials at the Department for Health, aimed at halving obesity in the next five years.
The policy would see junk food adverts banned from featuring prominently on the homepages of online delivery sites as well as on "favourite product" promotions.
It is one of a series of recommendations by the think-tank Nesta after a major piece of research into the effectiveness of strategies to combat obesity.
A panel of experts and academics assessed 30 different policies to see how they ranked in terms of effectiveness of obesity reduction at a population level as well as cost to the public purse.
They found that information and education campaigns as well as attempts to encourage voluntary action are "particularly ineffective" at reducing obesity in relation to their cost.
Meanwhile, imposing healthy food targets on large supermarkets - which would encourage them to promote vegetables rather than chocolate or crisps - would lead to millions fewer people being obese, the research said.
Other "nudge" measures recommended by Nesta include banning price promotions on unhealthy food by restaurants and takeaways, along with a requirement for food and drink products to contain prominent labels on packaging about their nutritional value.
Altogether, the package of seven measures proposed would have a "significant knock-on effect on obesity-related diseases", it said, adding that 157,000 cases of type-2 diabetes would be avoided over five years - a reduction of around a fifth.
The report also recommends an expansion in access to weight-loss drugs to 150,000 people each year, but says that relying solely on weight-loss drugs to halve obesity would cost £8.5 billion a year.
Instead the seven policies they recommend would come at a cost to the Government of about £520 million a year, which is about 16 times cheaper than relying on weight-loss drugs alone.
Ravi Gurumurthy, the chief executive of Nesta, said that countering obesity is often seen by ministers as something that will "take ages and be politically impossible to get through".
But he said this is a misconception and it "may not require the big lifestyle changes that people often think they need".
"We can do it through lots of small tweaks," said Mr Gurumurthy, who was a senior aide to David Miliband during the New Labour years. "You don't need to take a puritanical approach to tackling obesity where everyone eats kale. It can be done through slight changes but on a permanent basis."
Last week it emerged that Sir Keir Starmer is plotting a nanny state "latte tax" on canned coffees and milkshakes.
The Government announced it is considering applying a sugar tax to milky coffee drinks and bottled milkshakes as part of a push to solve the obesity crisis.
Last month, Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, announced that unemployed people will be given weight-loss jabs under Government plans to get them back to work.
Mr Streeting said the new class of medication could have a "monumental" impact on obesity and getting Britain working.
He announced a £280 million investment from Lilly, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, in developing new medicines and ways to deliver treatment. The plans will include the first real-world trial of the drugs' effect on worklessness, productivity and reliance on the NHS.
The Health Secretary said the injections should not be seen as an alternative to overhauling unhealthy lifestyles, but suggested they could have a major role in tackling the worklessness crisis.
Overall, 9.3 million people are economically inactive, according to the latest worklessness figures.