Five portions of fruit and vegetables a day are recommended

Three health organisations in Northern Ireland have joined forces to protest against the prosecution of a supermarket chain which labelled food with health messages.

A Trading Standards body in Shropshire is taking court action against Tesco after it labelled fruit and vegetables with cancer prevention messages.

It is being claimed the supermarket has flouted laws governing labelling and health claims.

However, the Health Promotion Agency, Action Cancer and the Ulster Cancer Foundation have challenged the legal action and called for the law on food labelling to be changed.

Dr Brian Gaffney, Chief Executive of the Health Promotion Agency said the prosecution seemed "ludicrous".

"The public have a right to know which foods benefits their health," he said.

It is absolutely ridiculous that such petty bureaucracy could prevent such a major improvement to the health of our community Arlene Spiers Ulster Cancer Foundation

"We know from an overwhelming amount of research that eating 400g/ five portions or more of fruit and vegetables each day can reduce the risk of developing cancer by as much as 20%.

"This is a crucial health message which the public needs to be aware of.

"Supermarkets are the obvious partners to be involved in getting information to the public when and where food is uppermost in peoples' minds. They are the most appropriate venues for healthy eating messages to be displayed.

"We are calling for the law to be updated appropriately so that such a potentially damaging situation cannot arise again."

Arlene Spiers, Chief Executive of the Ulster Cancer Foundation, said eating a diet rich in fruit and vegetables significantly protects against many cancers including colo-rectal, stomach and bladder cancer.

Health organisations say diet plays a part in cancer prevention

"Over a number of years in our healthy eating programmes for adults and children, we have worked in partnership with a range of wholesalers and retailers," she said.

"Their support provides a crucial vehicle to convey these messages to key audiences. If this legal action continues it could undermine many years of our life saving work.

"The Ulster Cancer Foundation believes that it is absolutely ridiculous that such petty bureaucracy could prevent such a major improvement to the health of our community."

Robin McRoberts, Chief Executive of Action Cancer, said that given that two out of every three cancers could be prevented by changes to diet and lifestyle.

"It seems ridiculous that we should be prevented from taking potentially lifesaving messages about food to the most obvious place, right where the customer makes their selection - in supermarkets," he said.

"More needs to be done to raise people's awareness of the relationship between what they eat and their chances of getting cancer. We must therefore take every opportunity to keep this to the forefront of everyone's thinking. "