Corporate killers

"Marketing junk food to children has to become socially unacceptable, a leading obesity expert will say today, warning that the food industry has done too little voluntarily to help avert what a major report this week will show is a "far worse scenario than even our gloomiest predictions". "Our diet-related health should no longer be a casualty in a battleground where every advance is resisted to defend short-term market share and profit. The food business will do best with clearly agreed goals on changes to our foods," he will say.

Banning the advertising of junk food during children's television programmes is not enough, he will say. All kinds of marketing must be addressed. "We must go much further in protecting children ... we need to make it socially unacceptable to peddle to children and that means big supermarkets and small retailers really changing their approach.""