Children’s favourites the Teletubbies and Tweenies are to be banned from promoting unhealthy children’s foods.

The BBC announced the changes following intense pressure from food campaigners concerned that pre-school television characters are used to sell foods high in sugar, salt and fat.

Last year, a report from the Food Commission revealed that a small can of Teletubbies pasta shapes with sausages contained more salt than the entire daily-recommended intake for a six-year-old.

More than 100 products feature BBC-owned characters including cake mixes, pasta shapes, fromage frais, chocolate bars, jellies and Easter eggs. Under the new guidelines drawn up by the Food Standards Agency, BBC characters will be used to promote only relatively healthy food.

BBC Worldwide is already in talks with food manufacturers to change the recipes. It will license a new range of staple food products such as fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and dairy products.

Nutritional organisations welcomed the change and urged the owners of other children’s characters to follow suit. Tim Lobstein, director of the Food Commission, said: “For over two years we have urged the BBC to take children’s health seriously when allowing their popular characters to be used to sell sweets, puddings and processed meals to children. We hope to see other character licensing agencies follow the BBC’s lead voluntarily or they may find themselves forced to change by regulation.”

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