Calories to be cut by major food and drink companies

Food and drink companies have promised to cut calories in their products to help tackle obesity in the UK.

The 17 firms, which include Coca-Cola, Subway and Tesco, have signed up to the government scheme.

The Department of Health says England has one of Europe's highest obesity rates and that consuming too many calories is the root of the problem.

Among ideas to help consumers will be resealable packaging on many chocolate bars, including Cadbury's Dairy Milk.

Under the new scheme, every chocolate bar made by Mars will have a cap of 250 calories, while the UK arm of Coca Cola says it will introduce a 30% reduction in some of its soft drinks by 2014.

And some supermarkets, such as Asda, will develop a new low calorie brand.

But Labour says the scheme is not the change needed in the nation's diet, favouring instead better food labelling and shielding children from adverts for junk food should be the starting point.