Cartoon stars 'selling fatty foods'

Shrek, Bratz, The Simpsons and the Pink Panther are among the familiar faces appearing on unhealthy products, Which? found.

The use of cartoon characters to promote foods high in fat, salt or sugar undermines parents' efforts to help children eat healthily, the consumer group said.

Which? researchers bought products featuring popular children's cartoon characters from UK supermarkets between March and June this year. They also looked at other food promotions which used cartoons. All the food products were then analysed to find their levels of salt, saturated fat and sugar.

The Which? Cartoon Heroes and Villains report lists an array of unhealthy products with cartoon characters on the packaging.

Bratz characters appeared on packs of Bon Bon Buddies' Fabulous Biscuits high in fat, saturates and sugar. Characters from the film Flushed Away appeared on packs of Burton's Jammie Dodgers and on Kellogg's Coco Pops Staws, which are both high in saturates and sugar.

The Simpsons appeared on honey nut popcorn from Butterkist which is high in sugar.

And The Pink Panther was used on Northumbrian Fine Foods' Jammy Wheels which are high in saturates and sugar, and Shrek featured on packs of Kellogg's Frosties which are high in sugar.

Many products featuring cartoon characters have no nutritional information on packs to help parents assess how healthy they are, Which? said. The consumer group also criticised fast food chains for running giveaway promotions using popular cartoon characters.

Which? praised Disney for recently announcing a ban on their characters being used to promote unhealthy products, and is now calling for other firms to follow suit. It also wants regulation to be brought in to stop "irresponsible" marketing of unhealthy food to children via TV adverts, packaging, free gifts and websites.