Cadbury to provide diet advice on sweet wrappers

Dietary advice may be included on chocolate bar wrappers under plans by Cadbury Schweppes to educate its customers about healthy eating.

The move will be made after the medical journal The Lancet criticised its Get Active promotion, which encouraged children to exchange chocolate wrappers for sports equipment. The beverages and confectionary firm yesterday said it had not decided on the precise wording but that it would not be a warning.

The journal also called for celebrities to stop endorsing junk food and for tighter industry regulation of junk food and sweets. It said children would have to buy about 320 chocolate bars at a cost of £134 to get a volleyball worth £18 in the Cadbury campaign.

"Food needs clear, probably iconic, labelling for its nutritional content - an icon for junk food should be easy to design," The Lancet said.

Cadbury said it wanted to play its part in the obesity debate and would decide on labels over the next few weeks. "It is true we are looking ... to provide better labelling for the consumer in terms of understanding what a balanced diet is," said a spokeswoman.

She added that the advice was only being considered for Britain. The Lancet cited figures from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) that showed obesity in 15-year-olds has trebled to 15 per cent over the past 10 years.

It also criticised the BBC for franchising its Tweenies characters, popular among pre-school children, to McDonald's.

McDonald's said it complied with British advertising and sales promotions standards and had internal standards that were even more stringent.