An EU official has warned that urgent action was needed to tackle obesity among Europe's young and warned the food industry it faced legislation in a year unless it stopped advertising junk food to children.
EU Health and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Markos Kyprianou said Europe used to consider obesity to be a US problem. "We made fun of the Americans in a way. It is a European problem now," he told the Financial Times.
"I would like to see the industry not advertising directly to children any more," he said. "The signs from the industry are very encouraging, very positive. But if this doesn't produce satisfactory results, we will proceed to legislation."
Mr Kyprianou said self-regulation was the fastest and most effective way to achieve the goal, but if action was not forthcoming then European Union legislation would follow.
He is to announce a new arrangement with the food industry to agree self-regulatory targets, which he hopes will be in place by the end of this year or early in 2006.
Mr Kyprianou said food manufacturers should use clearer labelling to make it "more easily understood by a consumer who doesn't have a PhD in chemistry".
The CIAA, the food industry's umbrella group in Europe, says it is working with the European Commission to develop proposals for tougher advertising guidelines and improved labelling.
"There is a need for improvement, but there is no magical solution for doing this in practical terms," the CIAA was quoted as saying by the Financial Times.
Last week, Kraft Foods in the United States said it would stop advertising products like Oreo cookies and Kool-Aid beverages to children younger than 12.