Anger at govt 'scrapping anti-obesity funding'

Commercial companies, including Kellogg, Britvic and PepsiCo will be playing a bigger role in tackling rising obesity levels in the UK, it has been announced.

Health secretary Andrew Lansley said he wanted to free food and beverage manufacturers from the "burden of regulation" and make them more instrumental in tackling obesity in the country.

However, health organisations have attacked the government's decision.

Betty McBride, director of policy and communications at the British Heart Foundation, said: "We wait with bated breath for the fast food merchants, chocolate bar makers and fizzy drink vendors to beat a path to the public health door."

She added that in the meantime, people would continue to be faced with "the bewildering kaleidoscope of confusing food labels and pre-watershed junk food ads".

Meanwhile, Tam Fry of the National Obesity Forum said he was "horror-struck" that the government would not continue to fund the Change4life scheme.

He claimed this was "nothing other than a bare-faced request for cash from a rich food and drink industry to bail out a cash-starved Department of Health campaign".

Some 444,406 have joined the Change4life campaign since its launch in January this year.

Posted by Jason Webster