Jamie Oliver is considering abandoning his campaigns to improve eating habits and livestock welfare, his mother has revealed.

The celebrity chef is fed up with 'getting stick' while trying to educate the nation.

His mother, Sally, said it had become 'depressing' for him to promote good causes only to become the focus of a public backlash.

Lost his appetite: Jamie Oliver says he is sick of 'getting stick'

Mrs Oliver, 56, who runs a pub/restaurant with her husband Trevor in Clavering, Essex, told the Daily Mail: 'It's a daunting task and I don't think he is going to do it anymore. It's a bit depressing.

'He gets so much stick for it. He's kind of thinking, "Is it worth it?" and maybe he should do what he likes doing, which is cooking.

'He really does care about these things and always thinks people will like all this lovely food he creates.

'But he feels like he's banging his head against a brick wall.'

Oliver, 33, found fame as TV's Naked Chef in 1998 and is now thought to be worth £25million.

One of his most successful campaigns, for healthier school meals, was triggered in 2005 by a fourpart documentary, Jamie's School Dinners.

The chef took over responsibility for meals at a school in Greenwich for a year, during which he became disgusted at the food on offer and lack of healthy alternatives.

Speaking out: Jamie's mother Sally Oliver

He subsequently shamed ministers into handing over millions of pounds to help banish canteen favourites such as Turkey Twizzlers and burger and chips in favour of pasta and fresh vegetables.

But school inspectors have since complained that children in twothirds of schools are ditching canteen meals for unhealthy packed lunches or fast food at nearby outlets.

At one school in Rotherham, mothers were photographed pushing burgers and fish and chips from local takeaways through the railings to make sure that their children ate.

Oliver  -  who came 28th in a Channel Four poll of the 100 Worst Britons in 2003  -  also provoked criticism from the RSPCA in January this year.

In Jamie's Fowl Dinners, male chicks that were of no use to egg production were shown being put in a container and starved of oxygen to demonstrate poultry industry practices.

In his latest project, a four-part Channel Four series Ministry of Food which will be aired later this year, he returns to Rotherham on a mission to revive home cooking skills.

But he was subjected to obscene chants when he appeared at the local football club. Most recently, he lambasted the British for being more interested in getting drunk than eating well.

In an interview with Paris Match magazine, he claimed there was a better range of food in African slums than in the UK, where people were more interested in getting 'drunk in pubs.'

But some critics claimed his tirade  -  in which he said French food was far superior to British  -  was intended to help secure a show in France.

A spokesman for Jamie Oliver said: ' We are not going to comment on any of Sally Oliver's comments.'